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CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES 



THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURALIST 
IN THE LESSER ANTILLES. 



BY 



FREDERICK A. OBER. 



'To-morrow I sail for those cinnamon groves, 
Where nightly the ghost of the Caribbee roves. : 



BOSTON 
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 



pv 



j LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Receives 

DEC 21 1907 

CLASiA ' xx«. N6. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1879, by Frederick A. Ober. 
Copyright, 1907, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 



All rights reserved. 



Camps in the Caribbees. 




Nortoonti JDrrss : 
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



TO 



NATHANIEL H. BISHOP, 

author of 
"a thousand miles' walk," "voyage of the paper canoe, 

ETC., 

(Tins §oofe is pcbitateb 

BY 
HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



1»<0 



The islands to which reference is made in the fol- 
lowing chapters are those known as the Caribbees, 
or Lesser Antilles, extending over eight degrees of 
latitude, between Porto Rico and Trinidad, connect- 
ing the Greater Antilles with the continent of South 
America. 

This archipelago, containing the loveliest islands in 
the western hemisphere, with settlements ante-dating 
Jamestown and Plymouth, with structure and physi- 
cal features interesting to men of science the world 
over, has yet remained, as at the period of discovery, 
almost an unknown field to the naturalist. 

In 1876, under the auspices of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, I undertook the exploration of these islands 
with the especial view of bringing to light their 
ornithological treasures. The investigation covered 
a space of nearly two years, during which time I 
visited mountains, forests, and people, that few, if 
any, tourists ever reached before. It was only by 
leaving the beaten path of travel, and taking to the 
woods, that I was enabled to accomplish what I did 

v 



VI PREFACE. 

in the way of discovery ; for which the curious reader 
is referred to the Appendix, and to the various cat- 
alogues of new birds discovered, published by the 
National Museum. 

While around the borders of each island there is a 
cleared belt of fertile land, sometimes densely popu- 
lated, and on the coast are often large villages and 
even cities, the interior is generally one vast forest, 
covering hills and mountains so wild and forbidding 
of aspect that few clearings are made in them save 
the "provision grounds" of the negroes and Indians. 
Many tourists and writers have visited these islands, 
have stopped a while in the towns, have interviewed 
the natives, and then have hastened off to England 
or the States, and written books about them. Several 
naturalists of note have likewise visited the shores 
of these interesting isles, but, like the writers afore- 
mentioned, have never penetrated beyond the line of 
civilization. 

Conjecturing that the public have had enough of 
descriptions at second hand, from writers who are 
more ears than eyes, I have hastened away from 
town and city, and sought an early opportunity for 
taking my readers to the forest, where everything 
reposes in nearly the same primitive simplicity and 
freshness as when discovered by Columbus, nearly 
four centuries ago. 

I took my camera with me, and whenever a new 
bit of scenery presented itself, a beautiful tree, or cas- 



PREFACE. Vll 

cade, or a composition peculiarly tropical, I photo- 
graphed it ; and my publishers have used as subjects 
for illustration only these photographs from nature, 
which have never been presented before. As with 
the illustrations, so with the sketches in type. I have 
but photographed the scenes I visited and the people 
I saw and lived among. Now and then, in follow- 
ing a thread of history that connects these islands and 
people with an almost forgotten past, I have availed 
myself of the language of the historian, but in rare 
instances. My only claim is, that these sketches are 
original, and fresh from new fields — new, yet old in 
American history, — and that they are accurate, so 
far as my power of description extends. They have 
not, like the engravings, had the benefit of touches 
from more skillful hands, and they may be crude and 
unfinished, and lack the delicate shadings and half- 
tones a more cunning artist could have given them ; 
but they are, at least, true to nature. 

Though the voyage to and from these islands 
was fraught with incident, there was little that did 
not savor of the ordinary sea-voyage, hence it has 
been left out, and the narrative begins and ends in 
the Caribbees. Beside this, there yet remains much 
material which has not been drawn upon, comprising 
more of pure adventure, which, should public and 
publishers pass a favorable verdict upon this, may 
form a volume for another year. 
Beverly, Mass., October, 1879. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
DOMINICA. 

PAGE 

The Mysterious Ocean Current. — Dominica and Columbus. — 
Roseau and Anthony Trollope. — A West-Indian Town. — 
Introduction to Tropical Scenes. — The Mountains. — The 
First Camp i 

CHAPTER II. 

CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 

A March Morning. — Matin Music. — Jean Baptiste. — Sonny. 

— Breakfast in the Mountains. — Queer Customs. — De- 
lightful Temperature for March. — The Hunt for Birds. — A 
Day's Duties. — Strange Birds and Scenery. — The "Trem- 
bleur." — A Precipice. — An Organ-Bird, the "Mountain 
Whistler." — Bird Notes. — My Chasseurs. — Land Crabs. — 
Ardent Assistants. — Twilight 12 

CHAPTER III. 

IN AND ABOUT MY FIRST CAMP. 

The Caribbean Sea, its Deceptive Appearance and Placidity. — 
My Neighbors, the Mountaineers, their Sayings and Wise 
Saws. — A French Missionary needed. — The Iguana and 
its Flesh. — Glimpses of Mrs. Grundy. — A Work of Art. 

— Cruising for Crustaceans. — The "Grives." — Marie. — 
Long-Tailed Decapods. — "Where Crabs grow." — "Wait 

ix 



X CONTENTS. 

there, Monsieur." — Astonished. — Shocked. — The River. — 
Drenched. — A Naiad. — A Victim to Science. — Food for the 
Gods . 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUNSET-BIRD. — HUMMING-BIRDS. 

The Crater-Tarn. — Temporary Camps. — The " Soleil Cou- 
cher." — "Hear the Sunset." — A Bird possessed of the 
Devil. — The Capture. — A Species New to the World. — 
Four Species of Humming-Birds. — The Garnet-Throat and 
Gilt-Crested. — Dan, the Hunter. — Catching Birds with 
Bread-Fruit Juice. — In Captivity. — Death. — Their Food. 

— Methods of Capture. — The Humming-Bird Gun. — The 
Aerial Dance 40 

CHAPTER V. 

THE BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 

A Wild Cat.— Tree-Ferns.— Mountain Palms.— A Rare Hum- 
ming-Bird. —The Valley of Desolation. — Misled by a Bot- 
tle. — Boiling Springs. — Hot Streams. — Sulphur Baths. — 
The Solfatara. — Building the Ajoupa. — Cooking Breakfast 
in a Boiling Spring 5 2 

CHAPTER VI. 
AMONG THE CARIBS. 

Their Peaceful Life. — Fruits and Food. —The Second Voyage 
of Columbus. — Discovery of the Caribs. — Fierce Nature 
and Intelligence of the "Cannibal Pagans." — Unlike the 
Natives of the Greater Antilles. — The Carib Reservation 
in Dominica. — My Camp in Carib Country. — Two Sov- 
ereigns. — The Village. — The Houses. — Catching a Cook. 

— A Torchlight Procession. — Lighting a Room with Fire- 
Flies. — "Look ze Cook." — Labor. — Domestic Relations. 

— A Drunken Indian. — Wild Men and Naked Children. — 
Carib Panniers. — The only Art preserved from their An- 
cestors -73 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER VII. 

SOCIAL LIFE, APPEARANCE, AND LANGUAGE OF THE 
CARIBS. 

Happy Children. — Cleanliness. — Primitive Innocence. —A 
Modest Maiden. — Dress. — Face and Figure. — Flattening 
the Forehead. — Ugly Men and Women. — Carib Hospital- 
ity. — The Basket- Weaver. — Tropic Noontide. — Religion. 

— The Dying Woman. — A Lost Skeleton. — Burial of the 
Dead. —The Wake. — St. Vincent Caribs. — Two Dialects. 

— The Arowaks. — An Agreeable Tongue. — Vocabulary. 

— Caliban a Carib. and Crusoe's Man Friday. — Cru- 
soe's Island. — Black Caribs. — Weapons and Utensils of 
Stone. — '• Thunderbolts." — Carib Sculpture. — A Sacri- 
ficial Stone. — Whence came They ? — Their Northern 
Limit. — A Southern Origin. — Their Lost Arts. — A Dying 
People 90 

CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW I CAPTURED THE IMPERIAL PARROT. 

Meyong. — My Hut. — A Mixed-up Language. — Departure 
for the Forest. — Pannier and Cutlass. — Wood-Pigeons. — 
The Startled Savages. — The Bath. — A Gloomy Gorge. — 
"Palmiste Montagne." — In the Haunts of the Parrot. — 
Immense Trees. — Parasites and Lianes. — Wood for Canoes 
and Gum for Incense. — The " Bois Diable." — Construct- 
ing the Camp. — Palm-Spathes. — A Bonne Bouche, the 
Beetle Grub. — Nocturnal Noises. — Comical Frogs. — A 
Blacksmith in a Tree. — The First Shot. — The Humming- 
Bird's Nest. — The Parrot. — An Excited Guide. — An Acci- 
dent. —Wild Hogs. —The " Little Devil." 112 

CHAPTER IX. 

A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 

The Bee-Tree. — Enveloped in Plants. — Ascending the Giant 
Tree. — Smoking Out the Bees. — Vegetable Ropes. — Honey 
ad libitum. — A Bite. — A Howl. — The Bee-Eaters. — Carib 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Perversity. — Sweet Content. — How to draw a Bee-Line. — 
The Palm Troughs. — A Bamboo Cup. — A Stroll and an 
Alarm. —The Carib Ghost. — Traditions. — The March re- 
sumed. — An Army of Crabs. — Crabs that Migrate. — Deli- 
cious Food. — The Mountain Peak. — Hunting the " Dia- 
blotin." — Is it a Myth ? — Caught in a Storm. — The Carib 
Castle. — The Captive's Cave. — Vampires. — The Forest 
Spirit 130 

CHAPTER X. 
A MIDNIGHT MARCH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 

The Apparition. — The Lost Chief. — A Forgotten Language. 

— The March by Torchlight. — Strange and Distorted 
Forms. — The Forest Wilderness. — A Mysterious Sound. 

— "A Tree felled by God." — Virgin, protect Us! — Cook- 
ing by Steam. — The Rosewood Cabin. — The Chief Dis- 
appears. — Is it Gold? — A Small Boa Constrictor. — A 
Carib Basilisk. — The Biggest Bug in the World. — It 
comes in Search of the Naturalist. — The Hercules Beetle. 

— Centipedes. — Scorpions. — An Unnamed Palm with Edi- 
ble Seeds. — A Priestess of Obeah. — African Witchcraft. — 

Its Stronghold. — Prostrated by the Heat. — Fever . . . 147 

CHAPTER XL 

A CRUISE IN THE HURRICANE SEASON. 

An Experiment in Coffee Culture. — The Pest of the Cof- 
fee Plant. — Liberian Coffee versus Mocha. — An African 
Disease. — Gathering in the Sick. — Down the Caribbean 
Coast. — The Flame-Tree. — The Orchard of Limes. — 
Profits of Lime Culture. — The Maroon Party. — The Stam- 
pede. — Farewell to Dominica. — Coral Islands. — An Im- 
mense Game Preserve. — "The Doctor." — The Jiggers. — • 
New Birds. — A Weary Voyage. — Seasons of the Tropics. 

— Tempests. — Calms. — Provisions Exhausted. — Turkey 
or Jackass. — Shark. — Odors of Spices. — The Tornado. — 
Hurricane Birds. — Pitons of St. Lucia. — St. Vincent. — 
Palm Avenue. — The Spa. — Hospitable People. — Basaltic 
Cliffs. — Richmond Vale. — Falls of Balleine. — The Water- 
spout .■...* 163 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER XII. 

A CAMP IN A CRATER. 

The Last of the Volcanoes. — The Soufriere of St. Vincent. 

— The "Invisible Bird." — Ascending the Volcano. — The 
"Dry River." — Bird's-Eye View of St. Vincent. — The Old 
Crater. — The New Crater. — The Lake in the Bowels of 
the Earth. — In the Cave. — Sunset. — Preparing for the 
Night. — Toby. — Five Days and Nights of Misery. — Fauna 
of a Mountain-Top. — Exploring the Crater-Brim. — Yuccas 
and Wild Pines. — Toby in the Cave's Mouth. — A Terror- 
stricken African. — Jacob's Well. — Snakes and Pitfalls. — 
Toby's "Stock." — The Soufriere-Bird. — A Mysterious Song- 
ster. — Unavailing Attempts to Procure it. — Sought for a 
Century. — A Dream. — Nasal Blasts. — Searching for the 
Bird. — The Carib Bird-Call. — The Capture. — A New Bird. 

— A Plunge into Darkness. — Scared by a Snake. — Toby 
Desperate. — Departure for Carib Country 184 

CHAPTER XIII. 

TRADITIONAL LORE.— A MISADVENTURE. 

Carib Country. — Sandy Bay. — Captain George. — Captain 
George's Family. — His Superstitions. — A Carib Romance. 
— A Love Test. — Courtship and Marriage. — Preparing Cas- 
sava. — Farine. — An Indian Invention. — The Obeah Charm. 

— The Carib Wars. — A Brave Coward. — The Caribs Cap- 
tured. — Sent to Coast of Honduras. — The Survivors. — The 
Seminoles. — A Parallel. — Carib Song. — Captain George's 
Treasure. — A Misadventure. — Balliceaux. — A Search for 
Skulls. — Battowia. — The " Moses Boat." — The Monster 
Iguana. — The Cave. — The Tortoise. — A Relic of a Fast 
Age. — Tropic Birds. — Our Boat Smashed. — A Night on 
the Beach. — The Southern Cross. — Paul and Virginia. — 
Church Island 208 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A MONTH ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 

Out of the Forest. — Into a Sick-Bed. — My Good Angel. — 
Convalescence. — Rutland Vale. — The Happy Valley. — 
Nocturnal Neighbors. — The Labor Question. — A Plant- 



XIV CONTENTS. 

er's Trials. — Coolie Immigration. — The Negro, returning 
to Savagery. — A Self-appointed Physician. — Government 
House. — Trees of the Tropics. — Bread-Fruit and Cocoa- 
Palm. — First Experience with Bread-Fruit. — Its Appear- 
ance. — Taste. — History of its Introduction. — Abundance 
in St. Vincent. — The Palms, their Great Beauty and Util- 
ity. — Cocoa-Palm, Palmiste, Groo-groo and Gris-gris, Areca 
and Mountain Palms. — The Vine with Perforated Leaves. 

— The Indian Maiden 229 

CHAPTER XV. 

GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 

Bequia. — Contented Islanders. — The " Bequia Sweet." — 
Carib Anecdote. — Union Island. — Canouan. — An Ener- 
getic Patriarch. — Cariacou. — On the Ancient Contiguity 
of the Lesser Antilles. — The Lost Atlantis. — " What if 
these Reefs were her Monument?" — A Glance at the Map. 

— An Isolated Geographical and Zoological Province. — 
Grenada. — St. George's. — More Craters. — The Carenage. 

— The Forts. — The Lagoon. — The "Eurydice." — Iguanas. 

— Their Habits. — Iguana-Shooting. —Oysters growing on 
Trees. — Columbus and his Pearls. — Lizards. — A Mission- 
ary's Grief. — Food of the Iguana. — The Mangrove. — 
Cacao. — Its Discovery. — Present Range. — Its Cultivation. 

— Cacao River. — Cocoa and Cacao. — The Tree. — The 
Fruit. — The Flower. — Idle Negroes. — Chocolate. — For- 
est Rats. — Monkeys. — Their Depredations. — An Insult . 245 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

Zones of Vegetation. — Naked Negroes. — The Road to the 
Mountains. — The Grand Etang. — Quadrupeds of the 
Lesser Antilles, Extinct and Living. —The Alco. — Pec- 
cary. — Agouti. — Manacou. — Armadillo. — Raccoon. — A 
Visit to the "Tatouay Traps."— The Forest surrounding 
the Mountain Lake. — " Haginamah " : Is it a Carib Word? 

— " Hog-in-armor," not a Carib Word. — " Le Morne des 
Sauteurs." — The Plantain Swamp. — Signs of Monkeys. — 
The Monkeys' Ladder. — Habits of Wild Monkeys. — The 



CONTENTS. XV 

Mammie Apple. — In Ambush. — Feathered Companions. 

— The Bete Rouge. — An Aged Monkey. — His Caution. — • 
Descending the Ladder. — Monkeys, giddy and grave. — 
Counting his Flock. — The Monkey recognizes a Brother. 

— "Shoot! Shoot!" — A Free Circus. — A Man, and a 
Brother. — The Monkey-Mamma. — Her Terror. — An Im- 
politic Imp 263 

CHAPTER XVII. 

SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 

From Crusoe's Island, North. — Frowning Cliffs. — Golden 

Sands. — Birth of a Rainbow. — St. Pierre. — The Volcano. 

— Our Consul. — "Old Farmer's Almanack." good for any 

Latitude. — French Breakfasts. — " Long Toms." — The 

Widow and her Weed. — Patois. — Costumes. — Good Claret. 

— Poor Calico. — Market- Women and Washer- Women. — 
Gaudy Garments. — Profusion of Ornaments. — Jardin des 
Plantes. — The Shrine and the Traveler's Tree. — Creole 
Dueling-Ground. — Palm Avenues. — The Cascade. — Sago 
and Areca Palms. — The Lake. — Land-Snails. — Lizards. — 
Tarantulas. — The Lance-Head Snake. — Venomous and 
Vengeful. — The Mountain Region. — Hot Springs. — An 
Extinct Volcano. — A Holy City. — Sabbath in the Coun- 
try. — Warned of Snakes. — Have Alligator Boots. — The 
Humble Shrine. — A Shriek. — Narrow Escape. — The Crafty 
Serpent 280 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 

Fort de France. — The Park. — Tamarinds and Mangos. — 
Statue of Josephine. — The Trois Pitons — .Historic Hills. 

— Coronation. — Inscription. — An Earthquake. — Terror. — 
Parents of Josephine. — Her Grandmother. — Alexander de 
Beauharnais. — A Valuable Document. — Marriage Register 
of Josephine's Parents. — Bungling Biographers. — Musty 
Memoirs. — Fort Royal Bay. — The Passage-Boat "John." — 
Trois-Ilets. — The Boulanger. — A Festive Father. —A Din- 
ner in Jeopardy. — A Low Couch. — A High Bill. — Church 
in which Josephine was Baptized. — A Tablet to her Moth- 



XVI CONTENTS. 

er's Memory. — La Pagerie, Birthplace of Josephine. — 
The Hurricane — The Roof that Sheltered an Empress. — 
Ground her Feet had Pressed. — Youth of Josephine. — 
Another Shock. — The Negro Barracks. — The Empress' 
Bath. — One Hundred Years ago ! — The Sibyl. — The 
Humming-Bird. — In Peril from a Serpent. — A Peaceful 
Scene. — A Rude Awakening. — The River Comes Down. — 
Earthquake again. — Rags and Melancholy 298 

CHAPTER XIX. 

ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 

Point a Pitre. — The Riviere Salee. — Usines. — Earthquake, 
Fire, and Hurricane. — A Living Bulwark. — The Caravels 
of Columbus. — Our Lady of Guadeloupe. — The Caribs. — 
Basse Terre. — Le Pere Lahat. — Orphans. — The Cholera 
Plague. — A Permis de Chasse. — Mixed. — A Horse with 
Points. — Government Square. — The Convent. — A Sum- 
mer Retreat. — Matouba. — My Thatched Hut. — Doctor 
Colardeau. —The Coolie. — The Coffee Plantation. —First 
Coffee in the West Indies. — Its Cultivation. — Temperature 
of the Coffee Region. — Blossoms and Fruit. — Picking and 
Preparing. — The High-Woods. — Their Grandeur. — Giant 
Trees. — Huge Buttresses. — Lianas, Ropes, and Cables. — 
Epiphytes and Parasites. — Aerial Gardens. — The Sulphur 
Stream.— The Cone.— The Summit. —The Portal.— Blasts 
of Hot Air. — Nature's Arcana. — Sulphur Crystals. — Erup- 
tions. — A Grand View. — Impenetrable Forests. — An Extinct 
Bird. — Juan Ponce de Leon. — The Fountain of Youth. — 
The Descent into Gloom 322 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Engraved by John Andrew, from the Author's Photographs and Sketches. 

page 
The Island of Cocoa Palms Frontispiece. 

Roseau 9 

The First Camp 14 

Marie, the Naiad 31 

Humming-Bird Hunters 47 

Boiling Lake of Dominica 53 

The Tropic Stream 59 

An Indian Kitchen 81 

Carib Girl 86 

Ancient Caribs 94 

The Sacrificial Stone 107 

The Hunter's Bath 117 

An "Ajoupa" 121 

An Army of Crabs 139 

Land Crab 146 

The Biggest Bug in the World 155 

A Group of Gamins 173 

xvii 



XV111 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Volcano and Lava River of St. Vincent 1S4 

Toby 206 

A Family Group of Indians 211 

The Indian Zemi 223 

Bread-Fruit and Cocoa-Palm 237 

The Groo-groo Palm 242 

Saint George's, Capital of Grenada 2S3 

The Lake in a Crater 265 

Palmiste — Glory of the Mountains 279 

Creole Costumes and Head-Dress . 2S6 

A Market Woman 287 

The Wayside Shrine 289 

The Widow and her Weed 295 

Birthplace of Josephine 302 

The Early Home of an Empress 313 

Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe 323 

The Guadeloupe Soufriere 341 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER I. 

DOMINICA. 

THE MYSTERIOUS OCEAN CURRENT. — DOMINICA AND COLUM- 
BUS. — ROSEAU AND ANTHONY TROLLOPE. — A WEST-INDIAN 
TOWN. — INTRODUCTION TO TROPICAL SCENES. — THE MOUN- 
TAINS. — THE FIRST CAMP. 

ALONG the entire group of the Caribbee Isles, 
sweeping their western shores, flows a strange, 
mysterious current. Not subject, apparently, to the 
laws that govern the winds and tides of this region, 
it for years puzzled and baffled the ablest navigators 
and oldest sailors. Among the northernmost of these 
islands large ships were often sunk, carried by the 
force of this unseen and unsuspected stream upon 
sunken reefs or barren rocks. Even so long ago as 
when Columbus was making his voyages, we have 
on record that he was detained by this very current 
among these same islands. 

It was not known until a comparatively recent 
period that it was the outflow of a mighty river — no 
less than the great Orinoco — that caused all this dis- 
turbance of waters, and that dependent upon its dif- 



2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ferent stages was the force of this river through the 
sea. Though my first experience with this current 
was in January, when the Orinoco was at its lowest, 
and the consequent marine flow at its weakest stage, 
I yet had sufficient proof of its strength to understand 
how it was that vessels of all sizes were sometimes 
many days in making ports but few miles apart. 

We left the port of St. Pierre, Martinique, for that of 
Roseau, Dominica, the distance being less than thirty- 
five miles, and the channel separating the islands but 
twenty in width. Late in the afternoon we hoisted 
sail, taking a fair land-breeze from the mountains 
and getting a fresh blow from the trade-winds draw- 
ing through the channel, and at midnight were close 
under the southern point of Dominica, with a fair 
prospect, when I went below, of landing early in the 
morning. 

The captain, a good fellow, had given up to me, as 
the only white man on board the sloop, the only berth 
the cabin afforded. Into that I crawled, with a lurk- 
ing fear of centipedes and scorpions, and fell asleep. 
Soon the wheezy pumps awoke me, and a stream 
of water trickling through the uncalked deck gave 
assurance that the water in the hold was being 
pumped out. As this process was repeated every 
halt-hour, my sleep was not so sound that I did not 
frequently visit the deck, and at each succeeding 
visit note with alarm that the land line grew dimmer. 
Daylight revealed that we were much farther away 
from shore than at midnight, surely drifting to the 
north-west, with sail flapping idly and rudder useless. 

The sun was late in showing himself, for he had to 
climb well up the heavens ere he could look over the 



DOMINICA. 3 

crest of the mountain-ridge that showed in the dis- 
tance cool and misty ; but as day advanced, and the 
hour of noon arrived, the cool hours of morning were 
more than compensated for by the intensity of the 
heat radiated from the glassy sea, — a heat that made 
itself felt with a glare that caused every one on board 
to seek earnestly a shady spot. 

And this was the " tropic sea " on which we were 
drifting, — the sea so often sung by the poet, the sea 
we had often contemplated in our fanciful dreaming 
in more northern climes. Like many an object of 
the poet's adoration, it is far pleasanter to look upon 
through his eyes than through visual organs of your 
own. Though the sun and sea made it painful to 
look abroad, there was nothing offensively new and 
glaring about the little sloop, that wearied the eye 
with bright colors. The prevailing color, in fact, 
was that of the wood of which it was built, the native 
wood of the island. The knees were of the natural 
twist and bend of the native trees ; the deck planking 
and sheathing were likewise of the native wood ; the 
mast, the boom, and the bowsprit were of the native 
woods of the island ; and captain and crew, doubt- 
less, also from the woods, — natives fresh from the 
native woods of Dominica. There were more than 
twenty people of color lounging in various attitudes 
about the deck. They seemed wholly indifferent to 
the fact that the vessel was drifting with them away 
from the island ; and when I suggested to the cap- 
tain that he utilize this material at the oars, there 
was a general howl of indignation. The captain 
also gazed at me like one who had heard informa- 
tion of a character novel and startling, and informed 



4 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

me that what I proposed was not only useless, but 
impossible. 

Struggle against the current of the mighty Orinoco ! 
Attempt to baffle the wiles of a power unseen, that 
always had acted in just such a manner, and had 
carried him over the same course every voyage he 
had made ! It would be preposterous ! At night, the 
land-breeze would come down from the mountains, 
and he would claw in-shore without any trouble what- 
ever. 

Late in the afternoon, however, we descried a speck 
dancing on the waves, which speck was, of course, a 
boat ; and in that boat, when it reached us, I engaged 
passage for the shore, my unhappy companions drift- 
ing about until the next afternoon, sometimes in sight, 
sometimes lost to view for a long time. As we neared 
shore I had time to examine the character of the 
scenery of the western coast, as one object after 
another was unfolded, and the mass of green and 
blue resolved itself into wooded hills, narrow valleys, 
and misty mountain-tops that reached the clouds. A 
planter's house gleamed white in a valley ; a pebbly 
beach stretched between high bluffs, with a grove 
of cocoa palms half hiding a village of rude cabins 
along its border. 

I was approaching an island of historic interest and 
scenic beauty, of which the events of one and the 
elements of the other are little known to the world at 
large. It is the first island upon which Columbus 
landed on his second voyage. Having been first seen 
on Sunday, it was called by him Dominica, and this 
event 'dates from the 3d of November, 1493. Blest 
isle of the Sabbath day ! Many changes has it known 



DOMINICA. 5 

since the great navigator first saw its blue mountains 
and landed upon its fragrant strand. 

Does it not read like a fairy tale, this second voyage 
of Columbus? With three ships and fourteen cara- 
vels, containing fifteen hundred persons, he set sail 
from Cadiz, touched at the Canary Isles, and then 
shaped his course for the islands of the Caribs, of 
whose prowess and fierce nature he had heard many 
stories from the mild people of Hispaniola. " At the 
dawn of day, November 3d, a lofty island was descried 
to the west. As the ships moved gently onward, other 
islands rose to sight, one after another, covered with 
forests and enlivened by flights of parrots and other 
tropical birds, while the whole air was sweetened 
by -the fragrance of the breezes which passed over 
them." 

Dominica is but thirty miles in length by eleven in 
breadth, yet presents a greater surface and more ob- 
stacles to travel to the square mile than any island of 
similar size in the West Indies. Well did Columbus 
illustrate its crumpled and uneven surface, when, in 
answer to his queen's inquiry regarding its appear- 
ance, he crushed a sheet of paper in his hand and 
threw it upon the table. In no other way could he 
better convey an idea of the furrowed hills and moun- 
tains, deeply cut and rent into ravines and hollowed 
into valleys. 

"To my mind," says Anthony Trollope, " Dominica, 
as seen from the sea, is by far the most picturesque 
of all these islands. Indeed, it would be hard to beat 
it either in color or grouping. It fills one with an 
ardent desire to be off and rambling among these 
mountains — as if one could ramble through such wild 



6 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

bush country, or ramble at all with the thermometer 
at eighty-five degrees. But when one has only to 
think of such things, without any idea of doing them, 
neither the bushes nor the thermometer are consid- 
ered." In this, as in all his sketches, Mr. Trollope 
is right so far as he goes ; but he does not go far 
enough. "Filled with an ardent desire," he should 
have given those woods and mountains the months of 
camp-life that I did ; then would the world be richer 
in pictures of forest-life and mountain scenery that my 
poor pen so feebly tries to portray. As one writer, 
an intelligent geologist, once remarked: "No island 
in these seas is bolder in its general aspects, more 
picturesque and more beautiful in the detail of its 
scenery — indeed, one might be tempted to say, con- 
sidering its fortunes, that it has the fatal gift of 
beauty ! " 

At five o'clock, the gun in the fort starts off the bell 
in the cathedral spire. It is an hour before daylight, 
and even at six the mists of the valleys cover all, 
even to the mountain-tops. The sun climbs steadily, 
though it is eight o'clock before he has shown his 
face to Roseau, and darts over the mountain-tops to 
windward his scorching rays. It is interesting to 
watch the changes that come over the mountain sides 
and valleys as the sun dissipates the morning mists. 
Lake Mountain, four thousand feet in height, towers 
black against the sky; five miles it is from town, yet 
seems so close as to overshadow it. Its head is veiled 
more than half the time in mist. Stretching away 
north and south is a long line of hills, an isolated peak 
jutting up at intervals. Their summits are blue and 
purple in the distance. Within this line is a cordon 



DOMINICA. 7 

of hills, with valleys deep and dark behind, half en- 
circling the town. These hills are broken and ragged, 
seamed and furrowed and scarred, yet are covered 
with a luxuriant vegetation of every shade of green : 
purple of mango and cacao, golden of cane and lime, 
orange and citron. Palms crown their ridges, culti- 
vated grounds infrequently gleam golden-brown on 
their slopes, and dense clouds come pouring over 
their crests from the Atlantic. North and south this 
bulwark of hills ends in huge cliffs plunged into the 
sea. Roseau is seated at the mouth of a valley formed 
by a river. From the centre of this valley there rises 
a hill — a mountain it is called here — Morne Bruce. 

From its smoothly-turfed crown the view of town 
and sea is superb, especially at sunset, when the sun 
sinks beyond the Caribbean Sea, and the cool even- 
ing breeze plays through the trees. From it we look 
upon the town ; many palm-trees, few houses, a rush- 
ing, roaring river that meets the sea in a surf-line like 
a northern snowdrift, a picturesque fort, the jail, the 
government house, and the Catholic cathedral — a 
building of stone, with arched windows and door- 
ways, short, though shapely spire — with a palm tall 
and slender, to lend grace and beauty ; westward, 
beyond the shore-line, the Caribbean Sea, its bosom, 
which glowed so fierily in the sunlight, now cool and 
inviting in its stillness. 

Looking eastward, one can see far into the Roseau 
Valley, to the wall of mountains, from which dashes 
out a great waterfall, dwindled to a mere silver thread 
in the distance. The Roseau River emerges into a 
plain beneath, a valley filled with cane, containing in 
its centre a planter's house and buildings palm-sur- 



5 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

rounded, dashes over its rocky bed with a roar that 
reaches our ears even at this height of several hun- 
dred feet, and runs at the foot of a high white cliff 
across another plantation into the sea, peaceful enough 
at the end. 

The streets of Roseau are straight, paved with rough 
stone, and they never echo to the sound of wheels. 
They cross at right angles and dwindle down to three 
bridle-paths leading out of the town, one north and one 
south, along the coast, and one, narrow and tortuous, 
over the mountains to the eastward. Most of the 
houses are one-storied boxes of wood, with bonnet 
roofs, sixteen by twenty feet ; many in a state of de- 
cay, with tattered sides, bald spaces without shingles, 
and dragging doors and shutters. Every street, how- 
ever, is highly picturesque with this rough architect- 
ure, and with cocoa palms lining and terminating the 
vistas. The town is green with fruit-trees, and over 
broken roofs and garden walls of roughest masonry 
hang many strange fruits. Conspicuous are the 
mango, orange, lime, pawpaw, plantain, banana, and 
tamarind. Over all tower the cocoa palms, their long 
leaves quivering, their dense clusters of gold-green 
nuts drooping with their weight. 

From the mountains, from the " Sweet River," comes 
the purest of water, led in pipes through all the streets, 
and gushing out in never-ceasing flow from the sea 
wall on the shore. The market, near the south end 
of the town, a small square surrounded by stores, is 
the centre of attraction on Saturdays, when it is dense- 
ly packed with country people, black and yellow, who 
come, some of them, from points a dozen miles dis- 
tant, each with his bunch of plantains, or tray of 



DOMINICA. 



9 



bread-fruit. All are chattering, so that there is a very 
babel of sounds. Little stalls, temporarily erected, 
contain most villainous salt fish, ancient and vile- 
smelling, and every few feet is a table, presided over 
by a contented wench, who has for sale cakes and 
sweetmeats of her own manufacture. 




Roseau. 

Near the market is the fort, a low stone structure, 
pierced with loopholes, commanding from its high, 
bluff the roadstead, in which, save the trading-vessels 
and the weekly steamer, there are seldom any craft 
besides the sugar-vessels. Near the fort is the Eng- 
lish church, with a clock in its face, and four magnifi- 
cent palmistes to guard its entrance. Adjoining is the 



IO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

government house in a garden of flowers ; and near, 
the court-house, of stone, yellow and low. Opposite, 
on a bluff overlooking the sea, is the public garden, 
neatly enclosed, tastefully ornamented; a few large 
trees, many roses, humming-birds, butterflies, and a 
grand view of the sea. The road leads by a broad 
green savane, near which is a ruined cemetery, down 
between long rows of lowly cabins, its bed green and 
grassy, within a stone's throw of the surf on the pebbly 
beach. 

This is Roseau, which I left one March morning 
for the mountains. Early came the women, who were 
sent by a kind friend to carry my luggage : heavy 
boxes and bales they had engaged to carry to the 
mountains on their heads. It was all the way as- 
cending, but they faithfully performed their duties, 
nor once complained. Astride an island colt, the 
loan of another friend, and accompanied by still 
another, whom I had met a few days before, I left 
behind me the town, and set my face to the moun- 
tains. 

Down the street, past the jail, across the river over 
an excellent bridge, under the cliffs of St. Aromant, 
into the banana and citron groves that lie at the moun- 
tain's base ; then Up higher and higher, the path grow- 
ing rocky and slippery, past the lovely valley of 
Shawford, where the house of my friend Stedman, 
built upon a small plateau, surrounded by hills, em- 
bowered in limes and plantains, overlooks a tropical 
garden. A mile above, we entered a deep ravine, 
where are the first perfect tree-ferns on the trail ; the 
gorge is filled with them, and the banks along the 
path are covered with smaller ones, infinitely beautiful. 



DOMINICA. II 

Here I first heard the melody of the " solitaire." Long 
since, the air of the town, hot and parching, had given 
place to cool and delicious breezes. We went out 
under the shade of trees, passing many a trickling 
stream, until an elevation of nearly two thousand feet 
was reached, w r hen we heard voices, and suddenly 
came upon a party of mountaineers (half Carib, half 
negro), naked to the waist, hatless, and armed each 
with his machete, or " cutlass," over two feet in length. 
They saluted us politely, however, and we passed on 
until near the " high woods," when we turned to the 
right and rode down a narrow trail under large trees, 
and reached finally a narrow gate of bars in a tall 
hedge of oleander. 

Descending rapidly from the forest was an open 
space of a hundred acres, perhaps, sloping westward, 
green as a sw r ard of guinea-grass could make it. 
Over this were scattered volcanic rocks and clumps 
of trees. This slope terminated abruptly in a cliff so 
steep that the people living here could not descend 
except by a long detour. Over this cliff fell the water- 
fall we saw in coming up. Deep ravines seamed it at 
intervals, all trending toward the valley wall, and on 
all sides but this were nothing but forest and hills. 

From one of the mountaineers I secured a cabin, 
one of the seven comprising this little hamlet, and 
before nightfall had comfortably established myself. 
My companion then left me alone to what proved but 
the first of many camps in tropical forests. 



12 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER II. 

CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 

A MARCH MORNING. — MATIN MUSIC. — JEAN BAPTISTE. — SONNY. 

— BREAKFAST IN THE MOUNTAINS. — QUEER CUSTOMS. — DE- 
LIGHTFUL TEMPERATURE FOR MARCH. — THE HUNT FOR BIRDS. 

— A DAY'S DUTIES. — STRANGE BIRDS AND SCENERY. — THE 
"TREMBLEUR." — A PRECIPICE. — AN ORGAN-BIRD, THE "MOUN- 
TAIN WHISTLER." — BIRD NOTES. — MY CHASSEURS. — LAND 
CRABS. — ARDENT ASSISTANTS. — TWILIGHT. 

IT is a bright March morning. As I throw open the 
shutters of my shanty and let in the light of early 
day, I look out upon a scene of loveliness that it were 
worth many a day's journey to enjoy. 

From beyond the mountains, east, the sun has 
climbed a little way until he peers through a defile in 
the hills, and a rift in the cloud masses, and floods 
only a narrow pathway down the surrounding hills, 
their northern slopes, a bit of the gloomy valley miles 
below, and bursts upon the calm Caribbean Sea with 
concentrated glory. A sail, floating on that sea, drifted 
hither and thither by strong, unaccountable currents, 
— which came, perchance, from Martinique or Bar- 
bados to the south, or from Guadeloupe or Montserrat 
to the north, — is ablaze with light, which gives it 
the appearance of being on fire. No sound comes 
up from the valley below, nor from the surrounding 
mountain sides ; even the rain frogs and the nocturnal 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 1 3 

cicada have closed their concerts and have left it to the 
birds to usher in the matin hour ; and they are singing 
in low, sweet strains far down in the gloomy ravines 
below, and in the thickets bordering distant glades. 

My first duty is to examine my thermometer. It 
registers sixty-eight degrees. That recorded, I step 
out and refresh myself with such ablution as can be 
enjoyed from a small calabash of rain-water. Soon, a 
little colored maiden appears bearing a tray with my 
coffee, and perhaps a cup of milk — oftener without. 
A cup of coffee and a slice of bread or a couple of 
crackers, is my only refreshment until noon, when I 
return from my tramp in the forest. 

When I first came to this mountain valley I brought 
with me a bright, colored boy as aid, fondly hop- 
ing he would be of much assistance in preparing my 
birds, as well as in the culinary line. But, alas ! in 
either profession he was singularly deficient, and save 
in the preservation of cooked provisions, — in other 
words, "to keep food from spoiling," — he was of no 
use whatever. After three days passed in his society 
we parted. There was also a question between him and 
Jean Baptiste (the proprietor of my humble cot), relat- 
ing to a few small articles that one night disappeared. 
Now, he was highly incensed that such a thing 
should happen within the limits of his jurisdiction, and 
made such a row about it that I concluded that it were 
best that " Sonny " and I should part, — with no regrets 
on my part, none expressed on his, — for the laboring 
class of the West Indies accept stoically whatever fate 
drops to them as their share. The salary I was pay- 
ing him was princely, being sixpence a day and" found," 
while the usual remuneration for such service as he 



14 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 






afforded me was three pence, and if "found," it was 
usually after a long search. Baptiste accepted the ex- 
pression of confidence that this act of mine implied, 
and took me at once under his protection and care ; 
hence it is that the little maiden aforesaid appears in 
the morning with my coffee ; at noon, when I return 
weary from the hunt, with a dish of eggs fried in oil 
and yam sauvage, and at dusk with the same, varied 
with a plate of mountain-cabbage, or salad, from the 
little wattle-enclosed garden on the hillside. 

The cabin of Bap- 
tiste is not far from 
mine, and my wants 
are promptly supplied 
when the hour ar- 
rives for meals, even 
almost anticipated. 
But there are many 
things connected with 
the attendance of my 
little cook and waiter 
that, in the light of 
my early education 
in New England, 
seem, to say the least, 
queer. For instance, 
when the knives and 
forks require clean- 
ing, their surplus 
coating is removed 
by being brought in 
close contact with the 



i ' 



WSmm 






The First £amp. 



skirts of her garment. I say garment, and use the 
word in the singular advisedly. 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 15 

The spoons also are cleaned in the same way, and 
were it not that my eyes had beheld the process of 
polishing, I should not believe, as they nestled inno- 
cently together on the rough table, but that they had 
been subjected to the treatment customary in more civil- 
ized communities. My tin camp-cup, which has accom- 
panied me in all my camp-life, was often the object of 
her attention, and at that time it was doubtful to me 
whether she was washing the cup with her fingers or 
rinsing her fingers in the cup. At any rate, it shows 
a laudable desire to have my table furniture in good 
order, and I do not murmur ; but there is a cake of 
soap and a towel that I keep concealed from her sharp 
eyes, that, when not observed, I bring into frequent use 
on those same objects of her devotion. One day I was 
incautious enough to peer into the culinary department 
— a palm-thatched structure, black and grimy with 
smoke which escaped from the fire on the ground, as 
best it could, through the roof. Only once ! I did not 
wish again to view those ancient pots and kettles, the 
refuse of preceding feasts, nor to fight my way through 
the drove of hogs that trooped about the open door. 

Occasionally the thought obtrudes itself, "They do 
not have things like this in the States." This often 
makes me sad, but I raise my eyes, perhaps, and look 
out over the green slope, down upon the valley burst- 
ing with palms, and beyond the hills to the peaceful 
sea smiling in sunshine ; and I exult in the thought 
that these enjoyments far outweigh the little annoy- 
ances that I have described. And I take down the 
thermometer and find that it records, if morning, six- 
ty-eight to seventy degrees; if noon, seventy-six de- 
grees ; if evening, seventy degrees. And I again 



l6 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

reflect, " They can't show all these in the States — in 
March." 

But effectually to escape the train of thought that 
these observations might give rise to, I take my gun, 
ammunition, game-basket and note-book, and plunge 
into one of the lateral ravines that feed the huge gorge 
below. It is morning. The bread-fruit, mango, and 
limes that thickly stud the slope above are glistening 
with dew, and the low shrubs that line the ravine, as 
well as the taller trees that darken its recesses, are 
dropping copious showers. I am following the dry 
bed of a stream that shows, by huge rocks dislodged 
and excavated banks, what must have been its size and 
force in the rainy season. Ferns, lycopodiums, and 
matted and tangled roots conceal the earth and make 
every footstep a doubtful one, and the loose stones and 
rocks, with dark holes beneath and beside them, sug- 
gest most forcibly the possibility of the presence of 
snakes. But I am looking for birds (and snakes 
also, if they come in my way), and do not give them 
the attention that once I thought I should, when hear- 
ing tales of their abundance and venomous character 
in these islands. As this is a search for birds, the 
snakes shall be left for some future chapter. 

It is well known that each species of bird has its 
own peculiar haunt, where it feeds, sings, and sports 
itself. It has also a different haunt for different por- 
tions of the day, and the birds of the morning which 
we find in the ravine may be, in the evening, feeding 
or singing on the borders of open glades, or higher up 
the mountain sides. At mid-day you will find all 
under cover of the densest shade, and silent. It is in 
the morning that they may be founa in localities char- 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 17 

acteristic of them. The first bird that greets me on 
the edge of the ravine is the humming-bird, as he 
dashes here and there from flower to flower, scatter- 
ing the dew-drops in tiny showers, and reflecting al- 
most prismatic hues from breast and back. There are 
three kinds here in this mountain valley, the smallest 
of which has a lovely crest of metallic green ; the 
largest, with a length of five inches, and stretch of 
wing of seven and a half, has a gorgeous garnet throat, 
purple back and wings, and tail of green, reflecting 
most delightful hues. The prevailing hue of the other 
species is green, with a throat sometimes green, some- 
times blue. 

I leave the humming-birds to my little chasseurs, 
who with bird-lime catch for me all I want. Of them 
more anon ; let us plunge into the ravine. A move- 
ment in the branches of a tall, slender tree claims at- 
tention. I look up ; see nothing. The broad, glossy 
leaves vibrate again, and I discern above the lower 
branches a bird the size and shape of our brown 
thrush ; he has a long, stout beak, a yellow eye, and 
a glossy, brown coat. He hops from twig to twig, 
feeding upon the coffee-like berries of this strange 
tree, silent, engaged in the gleaning of his morning 
meal. But however intent upon securing those white 
berries, the husks of which he drops almost upon my 
head, he does not forget to stop every few seconds and 
shake his wings and jerk his tail in a most comical 
manner. A hop, a quiver of wings and tail ; a skip, 
with accompanying shake all over ; a jump, with a 
convulsive shake, quivering and spasmodic twitching 
of head, wings, and tail. As I watch this inter- 
esting bird I am conscious of the presence of an- 

.9 



IO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Other, and of several others also, which when they 
meet go through the most laughable series of bows, 
quivering of wings and caudatory vibrations. Well 
has this bird earned the title — universal, I believe, 
throughout the West Indies — of Trembleur. 

And now, the trembleurs having been attended to, 
I push on till I reach the brink of a precipice. A 
little stream that falls musically over the rocks and 
stones suddenly loses itself over the brow of this wall 
of green, on the summit of which I stand. Cautiously 
clinging to the trunk of a tree, I look down into the 
valley. The sight nearly makes me dizzy, for there, 
five hundred feet beneath me, I see tall trees as little 
shrubs, bananas and plantains as small plants, and 
huge boulders as pebbles. The roots I am standing 
on overhang the precipice, and the tree shoots out far 
over the dizzy height. Above the sighing of the wind 
in the tree-tops, and the music of the birds, and creak- 
ing of branches, is a roaring of water falling from im- 
mense height — a roar that drowns every other noise, 
and deafens the ear to every other sensation. Wend- 
ing my way along the brink, clinging to roots and 
trees, I soon reach a point where I can see, half-way 
down the perpendicular cliff, a sheet of foam ; a hun- 
dred yards farther another, falling from a lesser 
height, yet neither less than one hundred and fifty 
feet — the higher over two hundred. 

They are lost in a sea of green, reappearing far- 
ther on as a united stream, which rushes and roars over 
rocks, through gorges and at the base of mountains, 
through gardens of figs and plantains, beneath tower- 
ing, feathery palms, through green fields of cane, at 
last to reach the sea. 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. IO, 

It is while carefully balancing myself on my shak- 
ing support of matted roots, that a sound comes to my 
ear through the roar of a waterfall — a sound strange- 
ly sweet, solemn, and impressive ; a mellow, organ- 
like note, clearer than any flute-tone, more thrilling 
than the solemn chant of sacred song in groined cathe- 
dral. It is repeated. I stand entranced, listening to 
melody that had never fallen on my ears before. 
The cause I cannot at first ascertain, for the notes 
seem ventriloquial ; and indeed they are so, for I search 
high and low, the leafy branches above my head, the 
densely clustered ferns at my feet, and the shrubs 
at my back, for many minutes, before I find the 
source of this mysterious music. Balanced airily on 
a lance-like bamboo that shot twenty feet beyond the 
brink of the cliff, poised in mid-air, with half a thou- 
sand feet of space between him and solid earth, is a 
daintily-shaped bird, clad in sober drab, save a dash 
of rouge beneath his throat, and of white here and 
there. 

Unconscious of surrounding things, animate and 
inanimate, he was devoting his powers to the pro- 
duction of that wonderful music. In the short space 
I here allot to myself I cannot describe the different 
notes ; surely no flute ever produced such mellow, 
liquid tones. It was music of unearthly sweetness, 
that, once heard, would never be forgotten — between 
the notes a long pause, that made them most im- 
pressive. It was not a song — though I discovered 
later that the little bird had a song — but simply the 
utterance of a few notes. Soon it ceased, and the bird 
flew into the near forest, where I soon discovered it 



20 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

busily feeding upon the berries of a tall shrub, to the 
pendant branches of which it was clinging, now and 
then dashing at a fugitive bunch, apparently as ab- 
sorbed in this occupation as in his melodious lay of a 
few minutes before. Soon he ceased feeding, and 
commenced preening himself upon a naked limb ; 
then, after smoothing himself out, as it were, and 
drawing in and stretching out his neck, he suddenly 
dashed at a single berry, swallowed it to clear his 
throat, and recommenced to trill. He had uttered 
but a few notes when he silently flew to a dead branch ; 
a few more and he winged his way to a swinging 
" liane," where he hung suspended above a little ravine, 
in which is sunk a tiny stream, whose tinkling waters 
made music, though not so sweet and liquid as his. 
Then he disappeared in the dark recesses of the forest, 
where it would be useless to follow him, but whence 
came at intervals the ventriloquial music that seemed 
to float over my head and around me, though the bird 
was afar. 

This bird is called by my mountaineer friends, who 
have a name, and an applicable one, for everything 
in the forest, the ' ' Sifficur Montague" or "Mountain 
Whistler." I afterwards had one in captivity for 
several weeks, and notes on his behavior, song, and 
food would fill a column that my readers might think 
could be put to better use, but which would be val- 
uable to the ornithologist as the first records of an 
intimate acquaintance with this species. 

But let us go on. I will leave the deep valley be- 
hind me, with the roar of the waterfall gradually fall- 
ing, 'first to a monotonous hum, then ceasing entirely, 
and climb the bed of another water-course, now dry, 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 21 

waiting for the summer rains. Soon I emerge into a 
grassy glade, surrounded by mango, coffee-trees, and 
trees resembling- the live-oak. The mangos are bris- 
tling with spikes of blossoms — white with thern — but 
not a bird nor a butterfly is hovering above them, 
though the surrounding trees and shrubs are alive with 
them. This is a fact I have long noticed, that the mango 
is ever deserted, though adjacent trees may be vocal 
with bird-music. But, flitting across this green glade, 
now bright under the rays of an ever-brightening sun, 
are many birds ; that is, many for this island, for it is 
not abundant in species, nor in numbers either, save of 
the humming-bird. 

There is a tree full of warblers of strange species — of 
Sucrier, or sugar-bird — a bird resembling our yellow 
warbler ; several of the more strictly fly-catching birds, 
and a few sparrows, grosbecs, and blackbirds. The 
three species of humming-bird are well represented, 
and dash hither and thither seeking their favorite food, 
indulging in mimic battles and amorous caresses. I 
push on, after an hour's stop, perhaps, over a rugged 
trail made by the half-wild cattle as they travel from 
glade to glade, and crossing another stream, climbing 
a hill, and descending into a ravine, I climb the steep 
slopes of the hill on which my cabin is perched. Every- 
thing is as I left it five hours before. The door, which 
is merely kept fastened by a stick braced against it, 
has not been opened ; but I find on the floor a clus- 
ter of oranges, a branch of fragrant lime-flowers 
for ray humming-birds, and a tastefully arranged bunch 
of roses from one of the girls. 

While I am putting the finishing touches to my bird- 
notes, the girl comes in with my lunch, and my little 



22 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

chasseurs arrive with their collection of humming-birds. 
They only hunt at certain times of the day, when I 
can be near to attend to the little captives, according 
to my instructions, for they have a cruel way of tying 
them together if they keep them long. They are find- 
ing some new things every day, and as they have got 
the idea that I am collecting everything in shape of 
bird, beast, insect, and reptile, they bring me the result 
of each da}/'s "find." Sometimes it is a snail, a fat 
caterpillar hideous in its slimy skin, a butterfly, a 
beetle, or a spider. At one time, from an incautious 
remark that I made to the effect that I would like a 
specimen of the curious land-crab which abounds in 
the ravines and rivulet banks, they conceived the idea 
of supplying me with the crustacean just mentioned. 
Each boy and girl on the place resolved to be the first 
to furnish me with the coveted crab. The consequence 
was that my place was soon overrun with shell-fish — 
ugly red and yellow crabs — as large as a man's hand, 
and from that to the most diminutive. One of the 
girls in a mischievous mood brought in a crab with a 
family of little ones, over a hundred, just large 
enough to be seen, and let them loose on the floor. 
Through some open window, while I was absent, some 
giant crab would be dropped on the floor to await my 
arrival. This was not done in a spirit of mischief, but 
from an earnest desire to aid me in my labors. 

For a week alter I could not stir without coming in 
contact with a shelly creature. I could not put my 
foot out of bed without a shudder of apprehension. Of 
nights I would be awakened by a rattling of ale-bottles, 
and 'arising would discover that some crab had got 
thirsty during the night, and had inserted a claw which 



CAMP LIFE IN THE TROPICS. 23 

had caught in the neck of a bottle. Or, as one other 
night, when my slumbers were broken by a mysterious 
rattling, and I awoke (thinking that, as Jean Baptiste 
had prophesied, the "jumbies " had come for me, as 
they come for everybody who sleeps alone in a strange 
house), to. find another crab vexing his soul in vain en- 
deavors to shin the broom-handle. It may be surmised 
that I soon informed my corps of naturalists that I could 
dispense with their services, and now I am again a 
lone investigator dependent upon his sole endeavors. 

In the afternoon I sit down by the loophole that 
serves as window, (where by raising my eyes I can 
at any time look off upon the peaceful Caribbean Sea,) 
gather my birds about me, and, after noting their 
measurements and other data necessary to aid in their 
identification, proceed to skin and preserve them pre- 
paratory to their long journey to the" States." It is near 
sunset when this is finished, and after supper I climb 
into my hammock, or sit on my threshold, watching 
the sun go down behind the mountains. If I were a 
little further to the north I could see him down clear to 
the sea ; and, in fact, I often climb a spur of a near 
hill, where are buried the ancestors of the present res- 
idents of Laudat, and watch the sun as he dips below 
the sea, just gilding with his parting rays the rude 
crosses that mark the last resting-place of those buried 
beneath them. 

But what I have been most disappointed in as the sun 
sets, is the absence of that prolonged twilight, which 
makes our evenings of early summer in the north so 
delightful ; when, after the sun goes down, there re- 
mains that blissful lingering of day with night, when 
the softened light fades so gradually away that we 



24 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

cannot tell at what precise moment, or how, it left us ; 
and when the song of the robin fills the air with mel- 
ody that many other of our birds keep up in the fields 
and orchards till late at night. There is none of that 
here. More than once I have said to myself, as the 
sun hid his face behind the dark ridge of mountain, 
leaving the trees sharply outlined against the clear 
sky — more than once I have repeated, "Now I will 
sit in the doorway and enjoy the twilight." But I had 
scarcely found and filled my pipe, and settled myself 
comfortably in doorway or hammock, when twilight 
was gone, and the fast-gathering darkness had hid the 
valleys, and was climbing the western slopes of the 
mountains. The stars, already out, shine with a 
liquid brilliancy that causes you to forget the absence 
of dusk, and you give yourself up to the contempla- 
tion of the lighted heavens, losing yourself in thought, 
wandering perhaps in meditation back to the land you 
have left, over which the same sky stretches and stars 
gleam ; but not with the clearness of the one, nor the 
soft brilliancy of the other — at least not at this present 
season. 



MY FIRST CAMP. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

IN AND ABOUT MY FIRST CAMP. 

THE CARIBBEAN SEA, ITS DECEPTIVE APPEARANCE AND PLA- 
CIDITY. — MY NEIGHBORS, THE MOUNTAINEERS, THEIR SAY- 
INGS AND WISE SAWS. — A FRENCH MISSIONARY NEEDED. — 
THE IGUANA AND ITS FLESH. — GLIMPSES OF MRS. GRUNDY. — 
A WORK OF ART. — CRUISING FOR CRUSTACEANS. — THE 
"GRIVES." — MARIE. — LONG-TAILED DECAPODS. — " WHERE 
CRABS GROW." — "WAIT THERE, MONSIEUR." — ASTONISHED. 
— SHOCKED. — THE RIVER. — DRENCHED. — A NAIAD. — A VIC- 
TIM TO SCIENCE. — FOOD FOR THE GODS. 

THE pictures seen from my cabin door are beau- 
tiful, but all suggest alike the sea. Detached 
peaks rise to the eastward and southward, connected 
by a continuous chain of hills to the sea. Their line 
is irregular, and very shapely are those mountain- 
peaks, clothed with verdure to their summits. The 
broken slope in front of my cabin slants rapidly to 
the precipice that borders the valley containing the 
river which hastens to the sea. Outlined against its 
silvery. surface are dark green mountains; a loosely 
branched tree stands out against it as against the sky ; 
palms, with gracefully spreading foliage, show dark 
against it. It spreads so far and wide, and seems to 
climb so high to meet the sky, that it is hardly pos- 
sible to tell where sea leaves off and sky begins. 
Every day I am puzzled to ascertain the horizon line. 



26 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Every day it blends into sky so softly that all seems 
sky, or all maybe sea. Is the sky blue, so is the sea; 
is it smoky pearl, the sea is dim, and hides its face 
beneath a hazy cloud. A cloudy day, with the sun 
shining on the water from behind the clouds, turning 
the sea to burnished and glistening silver, is as puz- 
zling as a day with sky of clearest ether, for the sun, 
reflected from the glowing surface of the sea, dissipates 
the line of demarkation in the glare of the reflection. 

There are times when the sea does not rise up to 
meet the sky, but spreads out miles and miles, until I 
almost fancy I can see to Aves Island — that solitary 
island far west in the Caribbean Sea, where a colony 
of birds breed on the sands. The best view is ob- 
tained at sunset; then, whether the bright orb dis- 
appears behind the mountains without a cloud, or 
whether he leaves a threatening array, clad in armor 
of gold and silver, the horizon line is well defined. 
At moonlight also, when mountains and valleys are 
but gradations in depth of shadow, the sea reposes 
peacefully beneath moon and stars, content to rest 
itself as a sea, and claiming no affinity with the vault 
above. 

It seems to me that it changes every time I look 
upon it — pearl-blue, silver shot with gold, hazy 
depths, from which no light is shown, and again a sea 
of deepest ether. It has never been otherwise than 
calm and placid, though the fierce winds that some- 
times sweep down from these mountains and dive into 
the valleys are enough to ruffle the tranquillity of any 
sea. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that vessels are 
often becalmed under the lee of these Caribbee islands 
for days together, and there is not even a swell to 



MY FIRST CAMP. 2*J 

break the monotony of existence on board. I can see 
white sails, sails of sloops, of schooners, of ships, 
drifting lazily over the placid sea. Sometimes the 
morning will reveal the sail of the evening before — 
the sail that I watched as I swung listlessly in my 
hammock. It is one of the pleasures of existence here 
that I can at any time have within my view the 
still, dreamy, beautiful sea of the Antilles. It is 
not always so peaceful. In the " hurricane season," 
when the tempests devastate these islands, it rises in 
its wrath — not like the miserable Atlantic, though, 
always in commotion ; it is disturbed only by a hurri- 
cane — nothing less. 

A century ago or thereabouts, there came to this 
mountain retreat, then unbroken wilderness, (as now 
it is, save this little clearing) that sanguine French- 
man, Jean Baptiste Laudat. Tradition says he came 
from his native isle of Martinique or Guadeloupe, and 
here looked about him for a wife. It is more proba- 
ble, though, that he brought her with him as a slave, 
and that she was black ; and that there afterwards got 
admixed a soupfon of Carib blood is manifest in the 
color of these, his descendants. They are not yellow, 
or bright olive like the Carib, but of a rich brown, 
with long hair, black and wavy. That the air of 
these mountains is conducive to health, their size, 
plumpness and activity prove. 

There are but five families, ruled over by the 
present Jean Baptiste, who inherits his power from 
his deceased grandfather, as eldest son. With 
him lives his mother, a yellow-skinned old lady of 
eighty, who hobbles about with a cane, and is a fre- 
quent visitor at the door of my hut. Now, this old 



28 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

lady and her Jean can speak what they flatter them- 
selves passes for English, but their native tongue is 
the perverted French of their white ancestor. To a 
Parisian, their perversion of the French verb faire 
would be sufficient to drive him crazy. 

For instance, the old lady strives to make intelligible 
the number of her grandchildren and their respective 
parents: "My zon, Jean, he make ze enfans seex ; 
Ma fille, he make huit, and tout les enfans make 
seexty." She passed my door one afternoon as I was 
busy preparing my collections for preservation, and 
told me confidently that she was going to " make petit 
walk," but a wail from the house of her eldest son 
caused her to hurry her old limbs to soothe the child 
" zat make ze cry." " Me make my sleep," is a com- 
mon expression. 

Jean B. is full of wise sayings, and gives vent to 
some very strange expressions. One day I returned 
from a long hunt in a heavy rain, and my worthy 
friend was greatly exercised that I did not immediate- 
ly change my clothing. " Who drink ze watah," said 
he. " It is youselfs feet ; " meaning that the moisture 
had been absorbed into my system. "White man 
next to God (ze Mon Dieu)" "White man not like 
colored, he no eat ze bones of ze poule." " I tank ze 
Mon Dieu ef I speaks ze Engleesh." He exercised a 
sort of paternal sovereignty over me, as the first white 
man who had honored his little hamlet with his pres- 
ence, and many a day has he staid from his labor in 
the mountains to procure something for my table, or 
some new bird. 

One day he brought to my door an iguana, nearly 
five feet in length, and very ugly. He had seen it 



MY FIRST CAMP. 20, 

basking on a limb beneath the cliff and had pinned it 
with a long bamboo, while his brother secured it with 
a noose made from a liane. I expressed a desire to 
obtain its skin, and hastened to do so, but a woman 
was already scorching the scales, which she afterward 
scraped off in water. It looked quite repulsive, but 
a piece which they later sent me I ate, finding it sweet, 
tender, and white, not unlike chicken. This is the 
season (March and April) when the iguana leaves the 
rocks and precipices, and takes to the trees. He lives 
on grass and leaves, principally, if not solely, and only 
frequents the trees, they say, during the dry season ; 
then he is hunted. During the wet season he lives in 
his hole, or if he comes out he is hard to find. The 
dogs of Laudat are trained to hunt this lizard. 

I always held that for darning, pure and simple, 
our good old grandmothers f the good old times held 
rank -par excellence. This was conclusively proven 
one day, when, having made a long rent in the leg of 
an old pair of trowsers, I took them to Mrs. Jean Bap- 
tiste to be repaired. As I turned to go I was arrested 
by an exclamation, and looking back found her at- 
tentively examining them. Now, they were very old ; 
how they got mixed up with the rest of my wardrobe 
I do not know ; but as they were there I made use of 
them in the woods, intending to leave them there, 
peradventure they survived. 

Years before they had been patched by my grand- 
mother ; that maternal relative had a passion for darn- 
ing perfectly unaccountable. Like Alexander, she 
would shed tears when there were no more conquests 
to make in her world of darning, and a new pair of 
pantaloons, or a coat without a rent, was to her a 



30 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

source of grief. How eagerly she would seize upon 
a garment that showed signs of dissolution ! 

Jabbering a few hurried words in patois to a gargon 
who quickly departed, Mrs. Jean Baptiste sat down 
with the garment in her hands to await the arrival, as 
I soon found, of the adult female population of Laudat. 
When they had all arrived she arose and displayed to 
their united view the broadest part of my inoffensive 
nether habiliments. At first they were speechless with 
admiration, but soon broke forth into a chorus of Mon 
Dieus ! each one reaching forward for a closer inspec- 
tion. 

The simple explanation of this is, they recognized 
the work of a master-hand. Had some connoisseur 
of paintings found in a garret — as some one is con- 
stantly finding in a garret — a painting that, the dust 
being removed, disclosed a Murillo or a Van Dyke, 
he could not have been more delighted and surprised. 
I say delighted, but sober reflection convinced them 
that such handiwork should not be shown their lords 
and masters ; and they grew troubled lest they should 
see this masterpiece, and becoming dissatisfied with 
their spouses' needlework, eventually sue for divorce 
on grounds of incompetency, or some kindred cause. 
Then they desired I should teach them ; but I pro- 
tested that I never had taken lessons in that science, and 
that unless they could puzzle it out for themselves, the 
art, as an art, must be a lost one to them. Mine host 
heard of it, however, and to him I gave the garment. 
And it is said that he has caused to be preserved (by 
framing or some other way) that design in darning, 
and, having lopped off the legs for his youngest son, 
regards the remainder as an art treasure of the highest 



MY FIRST CAMP. 



31 




yVlARIE. 



value. If his wife gets refractory he has but to point 
with warning gesture at that specimen of needlework, 
and she at once subsides. 

Even in this wild island, in the depths of the deepest 
forest, there exists that fear of Mrs. Grundy that smoul- 
ders in the human breast in town and city. Though 
the young people of the mountains go about for days 
and weeks with nothing on but a single gown or rag- 
ged shirt, when the time comes for going to town they 
must carry with them all they possess in the way of a 
wardrobe ; and they will carry on tneir neads a large 



32 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Indian pannier, or basket, with nothing in it but their 
best clothes. When they reach the banks of the last 
stream nearest town they don their finery, and cram 
their unwilling feet into unaccustomed shoes, and then 
limp painfully into the metropolis, conscious that they 
are objects of envy and admiration. 

They are really prettier in the more becoming cos- 
tume of the mountains — a simple dress gathered 
about the hips, reaching to the knees ; and men and 
boys handsomer in merely cotton pants, with broad 
breast and muscular arms exposed. I have seen the 
policemen, when in secluded country districts, walk- 
ing with their shoes held carefully under their arm. 
Though improvident of time, these people are very 
careful of their clothing. 

Jean Baptiste came in one day with a bunch of 
" grives," or large thrushes, which are excellent eating 
and desirable specimens. At my request he went down 
into the woods and showed me the tree on which, 
morning and afternoon, they could be found feeding. 
It was then noon, and I could not find any ; but next 
morning I started out with the intention of bagging a 
few. Heavy showers came down every half-hour, 
but I donned my rubber poncho, and waded on through 
the wet forest, with my gun securely covered. My 
course lay down the south ravine. On the hill to the 
right was a tall figuier tree, the fruit of which is liked 
by the birds. This fruit resembles in shape, size and 
color, a cranberry, and is attached to the twigs in 
clusters of two and three. 

Now, I could have sworn to the exact position of 
that tree ; yet, having tramped doggedly through the 
rain for more than half an hour without seeing any 



MY FIRST CAMP. 33 

familiar tree or shrub, I began to look about me 
sharply. Though I had noted the direction in my 
mind's eye when shown the tree, I overshot it 
in my search and got farther down. A group 
of tree-ferns I remembered ; farther on, across a 
brook, was a large rock — all right; but where was 
the ants' nest in a dead tree that I had especially 
noted? To understand why all my landmarks were 
small and insignificant, the reader must be informed 
that in these woods the trees are so large and shoot 
up so high that their crowns afford no means of identi- 
fying them ; and all their trunks are so much alike, 
enveloped in masses of vines and ferns, that other ob- 
jects must be chosen to guide the hunter in his rambles 
here. Under thick foliage I went, until the roar of 
the large waterfall came up to me, and I knew I 
must retrace my steps, as the tree was on the ridge 
between the two streams. 

At once I was stopped by seeing on the ground be- 
fore me scattered shreds of jlguier fruit, and looking 
up, saw the tree above me. As I had approached 
from the side opposite to that of my first visit, its sur- 
roundings had seemed changed. The rain came 
down in torrents, but glanced harmlessly from my 
poncho. It was tiresome waiting, but I secured all I 
wanted of the grives and went back to the main trail 
leading to the Boiling Lake, and sat down on a 
rock in a more open part of the forest, to try to 
secure a few humming-birds. The rain had ceased, 
and the sun was shining outside. Yielding to the 
overpowering influence of silence and solitude, I 
was indulging in a day-dream, when a voice awoke 
me : 

3 



34 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

" Bon jour, monsieur I " 

I looked up, and saw two brown-skinned maidens. 
One was a little mulattress, about ten years old ; the 
other was Marie — light-hearted, sunny Marie — in 
whose veins flowed the blood of three races. The 
blood of the African showed in her wavy hair and full 
lips, and told what was the original stock with which 
that of the Carib was mingled ; and that of the jovial 
Frenchman, who had wandered to these wilds years 
and years ago, gave the roundness and suppleness of 
limb, the quick merry eye, the oval cheek, and little 
hands and feet. 

" Bon jour ', Mademoiselle Marie: where are you 
going?" 

" Pour chercher les ecrevisse " — To look for cray- 
fish. 

Crayfish ! Why, just what I wanted ; for I had 
promised one of the professors in Washington to make 
collections of these very animals. I glanced up through 
a hole in the leafy roof above me and judged it was 
about ten o'clock, unless the sun's rays were refracted 
in coming through. 

" Have you anything for me to eat, Marie?" 

"Yes, monsieur." 

" Then I will go with you." 

" It gives me much plaisir, monsieur." 

"Well, lead the way." 

Reader, if you look in a work on natural history for 
information regarding the crayfish, you will find it 
there given as a " long-tailed decapod ; " and, pur- 
suing the subject still farther, you will see that it is 
also crustacean — a " decapod crustacean." And thus 
you might follow the author up to the branch articu' 






MY FIRST CAMP. 35 

lata, and back again through all its divisions and 
ramifications, and all you will know about it will be 
that it is a long-tailed decapod, and inhabits fresh- 
water streams. 

Long-tailed decapod, forsooth ! 

Come with me, reader, and I will show you more of 
crayfish and their ways than you can learn in a week 
of books. Follow in my wake, or, as the path is 
slippery, take good hold of my hand. The way leads 
up hill and over rocks, wet and smooth, for perhaps a 
mile. Don't mind the wet leaves that continually flap 
in your face, or the vines and creeping ferns that 
vex your feet. Take a good grip and come along. 
In the language of the immortal bard (who, by the 
way, never knew of crayfish like these) : 

" I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow." 

We may have completed a mile, when Marie 
stopped : " Stay here, monsieur." I staid, while she 
went behind a large rock and removed her shoes. 
Then I was allowed to follow on until the path was 
left, and we entered the deeper woods to descend to 
the river. Opposite another huge rock she stopped 
again. "Wait there, monsieur." Behind this rock 
she darted with her little companion, and shortly re- 
appeared. 

Satyrs and wood-nymphs ! I thought these girls 
about as thinly clad as possible when they disap- 
peared behind the rock, but I declare in all serious- 
ness, they had left a large bundle of clothes behind. 

What a mysterious combination is woman ! And 
there they stood, laughing and blushing, in a single 
dress each, loosely gathered at the shoulders, and at 



36 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the waist by a girdle. This was becoming serious. 
If there were any more rocks in our path, I felt morally 
certain they would dodge behind them. And then 
how would they appear? My hair began to bristle. 
I was resolved to stop it at all hazards. 

" Look here, Marie ! " 

" Yes, monsieur." 

" Don't do that any more." 

"What, monsieur?" 

"Don't go behind any more rocks; don't take off 
any more garments." 

" Why no, monsieur ; it is impossible !" 

No amount of italicizing or exclamation-points can 
render the astonishment in her tone as she thus as- 
sured me ; and feeling that I could then safely proceed, 
I gave the order to go on. We reached the river — 
the stream that flows out of the mountain lake — broad 
and with gravelly beach, with immense bowlders as 
islands, and a wall of vegetation on either side that rose 
straight up a hundred feet. Here my guides left me 
to my own devices and waded into the stream in search 
of crayfish. I saw a bird I had not seen before, and 
pursued it along the shore until stopped by a cascade. 
It was within shot, however, and at the report of my 
gun it fell into a little pool. The rocks were smooth 
as glass, and my great boots, though good protection 
from the vines and thorns, were but poor aids in 
clambering over these rocks. The result was that I 
unexpectedly sat down upon a rock, and very sud- 
denly I came down, too. There was a stream of 
water rushing over that rock six inches in depth, so 
that my fall did not hurt me ; but the rapid-flowing 
sheet struck my back with great force, and climbed 



MY FIRST CAMP. 37 

up over my coat-collar so rapidly that I was im- 
mediately as bloated as a bull-frog. The rain had 
long ago drenched me, but, though wet before, I did 
not care to get wet behind. 

My half-smothered yells brought Marie to my as- 
sistance, and she rescued me and the bird, and then 
suggested I could wade better with my boots off. 
Happy thought ! The boots were removed. I need 
not detail, to any one who has had the experience, the 
pleasure of wading barefoot over stones and rocks for 
.the first time in years. A little torture was enough 
for me, and in half an hour I was quietly seated, dry- 
ing in the sun, watching 1 the girls at their work. The 
stream was broad, with deep pools, and in these 
pools the crayfish lurked, looking like miniature 
lobsters through the clear water. I could see only 
the small ones, but Marie assured me there were large 
ones out of sight beneath the cascades. I was glad of 
that, for several severe nips from these small ones had 
given me enough of crayfish, and I did not care 
whether my friends in America ever got a specimen. 

Erect upon the rock she stood a moment, then 
plunged head-foremost into a foaming pool, disap- 
pearing from sight. A moment later, rising bubbles 
preceded a round little head, from which hung long, 
limp tresses ; a pair of shoulders brown and bare, and 
round arms and little hands reaching out for a support. 
She had a crayfish in each hand, and another, with 
wriggling legs, in her mouth. These she handed to 
the little girl on the rock near me, and then climbed 
out and stood erect, with heaving bosom and parted 
lips, and nonchalantly gathered up her dripping 
skirts and wrung from them the water. Outlined 



38 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

against that wonderful background of tropical leaves, 
with its depths of shade and gleams of light, with the 
water dashing against the rock upon which she stood, 
and parting in sheets of foam, what a charming naiad 
she appeared ! Naiad she may have been, but she could 
hardly have been called a Dry-ad, as the water had 
caused her garment to cling closely to her shapely 
figure, and was pouring from it. 

Once, breathless and excited, she arose, and came 
to me with an ugly water scorpion between her fingers, 
one of which was red and swollen, where the venom- 
ous thing had bitten it. Thus we went on up the 
stream until near the mountain lake, when our way was 
stopped by a jam of broken limbs. Then we turned 
down again until halted by a series of wells, worn from 
the rock by the action of the water, twenty feet deep, 
into which the flood plunged wildly, ever descending, 
on its way to the grand leap of two hundred feet into 
the valley below. While my companions searched a 
side stream I remained on the banks by the trail. 
Daylight waned and they came not ; the gathering 
gloom urged me to be up and on my way home ; but 
the trail was obscured, and I was not sure of reaching 
my hut in the dark without a guide, So I waited, 
perforce. Everything living seemed to have left the 
river's banks, and the only companion to my solitude 
was a gayly-colored lizard, which lay upon a branch 
and watched me. In the interest of science — but 
against my better feelings — I held a bottle before his 
nose, and he walked into it. Then I put in the cork, 
and later he was having his fill of rum ; not the first 
victim of the bottle — and of science. 

Voices reached me not long after, and none too 



MY FIRST CAMP. 39 

soon, for we had hardly light enough to reach the 
main path. Late as it was, however, Marie prepared 
some of the fish when she reached her mother's house, 
and sent them to me with some fragrant limes and a 
spicy pepper. The delicate flesh as far surpasses 
that of the coarse, garbage-feeding lobster in flavor, 
as a " saddle-rock " does a coon oyster. With a drip- 
ping of lime-juice and a dash of West India pepper, 
some Peak & Freans' biscuit and a bottle of Tennant's 
pale ale, I supped so delightfully that all my mishaps 
were forgotten. I even queried whether crayfish- 
hunting, with a dusky maiden of sixteen, who ex- 
tended a helping hand when you slipped, laughed 
merrily when you fell, talked musical patois as she 
pattered along, were not better than hunting through 
musty books. 



4-0 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUNSET-BIRD. — HUMMING-BIRDS. 

THE CRATER-TARN. — TEMPORARY CAMPS. — THE " SOLEIL COU- 
CHER." — "HEAR THE SUNSET." — A BIRD POSSESSED OF THE 
DEVIL. — THE CAPTURE. — A SPECIES NEW TO THE WORLD. — 
FOUR SPECIES OF HUMMING-BIRDS. — THE GARNET-THROAT 
AND GILT-CRESTED. — DAN, THE HUNTER. — CATCHING BIRDS 
WITH BREAD-FRUIT JUICE. — IN CAPTIVITY. — DEATH. — THEIR 
FOOD. — METHODS OF CAPTURE. — THE HUMMING-BIRD GUN. — 
THE AERIAL DANCE. 

IN all the Caribbee Islands there are volcanoes, 
many of them still at work, ejecting, not lava, but 
steam and sulphur fumes. In the mountains one finds 
numerous tarns of clear, cold water, filling these ex- 
tinct craters to the brim, and pouring their surplus 
flood down the mountain sides to form rivers in the 
valleys below. How came they there, these lakes 
of unknown depth? Are they fed by subterranean 
streams, or have the craters become choked, and, in- 
stead of vomiting forth water, and gases generated 
in the center of the earth, become merely receptacles 
for the drainage of surrounding mountains? Who 
knows? We only know that we cannot sound their 
depths with plummet-line, and that the water is pure 
and tasteless. Ages and ages have they existed here, 
and he must be more than geologist, and acquainted 
with the plans of a great Creator, who would answer 
these questions. 



THE SUNSET-BIRD. 41 

Such an one was the little lake above my first camp 
in the mountains. Twenty-three hundred feet above 
the sea, right in the crest of the mountain-ridge, sur- 
rounded by the most wonderful vegetation ever be- 
held by man, it reposed in solitude. On all sides but 
one the hills rose above it, dipping toward it and 
forming' a hollow through which rushed the trade- 
winds from the Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea. The 
trail leading from sea to ocean passed near it, and 
a cave, hollowed from a clayey bank, gave shelter 
from rains to the passers-by and to the people from 
the coast who sometimes came marooning here. A 
tree-fern, between path and lake, arose above the 
matted carpet of wild plants beneath. 

From my permanent camp I frequently went out 
into the forest for days, taking with me a young 
Indian as porter and guide. Leaving this mountain 
lake, one day, we took a little-used trail along the 
ridge to the northward. Late in the afternoon we 
came to another solitary lake, ringed round with giant 
trees. To my surprise, my guide at once made prepa- 
rations for a camp, or an ajoupa, as he called the 
primitive structure hastily erected every night to shel- 
ter us from the damp. 

Darkness settles swiftly in these tropic forests. No 
sooner is the sun down than night is upon you ; con- 
sequently we always camped as soon as the sun had 
set, for traveling after dark in these wilds is a thing 
impossible. 

I objected to camping then, thinking we had at 
least another hour of daylight, though I could not 
tell, the forest was so dense, when he quickly de- 
manded : "What ! vou no hear the sunset?" 



42 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

I was astonished. "Hear the sunset ! No, cer- 
tainly not ! " 

"Ah, monsieur, me no mean the great sun, I e grand 
soleil, but the bird called the c Sunset-bird,' *Le Soleil 
Couchcr.'' " 

Here was a mystery, an object worthy of investi- 
gation — a bird that acted as the forester's clock, that 
told him the time to go to bed. At once I proposed 
to go in search of it ; but my guide piteously pro- 
tested, declaring that it was a " jumbie-bird," — a bird 
possessed of the devil, — and that to kill it would not 
only endanger my life, but bring death to the settle- 
ment. Half an hour before sunset it utters its pecu- 
liar cry, and half an hour before sunrise ; during the 
day it is silent. 

" Listen ! " said my guide. In a few minutes there 
rang through the forest a cry weird and mournful, yet 
having in its notes a resemblance to the words soleil 
couchcr — the equivalent in patois for sunset. It was 
repeated by another bird and another, all around the 
lake, one answering another. In less than half an hour 
darkness had covered us, and the cries had ceased. 

Grand old trees towered above me, their branches 
matted together and hung with cable-like vines. In 
the morning, I listened eagerly for a repetition of the 
sounds of the night before, and was out and away 
down to the lake-border with my gun, before my 
guide was awake, or daylight had made it safe to 
walk abroad. I was rewarded — "soleil coucher!" 
right over my head. Eagerly I gazed, but saw noth- 
ing. The sound was repeated, and by other birds. 
In the darkness it was impossible to distinguish any- 
thing, though never so near. 



THE SUNSET-BIRD. 43 

Impatiently I awaited the coming of dawn, which 
with its first indications rewarded my search. I saw 
a dusky body, a bird so small that I concluded it 
could not be the author of so loud a cry. But in a 
few minutes I noted it in the very act ; and almost 
before it had finished its note, and while the final 
cadence was quavering on the air, the sound of my 
gun announced to my guide that the deed was done, 
and it was now too late to avert the vengeance of the 
evil spirits. Regardless of his lamentations, I stood 
absorbed in the contemplation of the bird now in my 
hand. That it was a new bird I felt certain, and im- 
mediately — as soon as my agitation had subsided — 
I wrote a description of it. 

In shape and size it resembles the "king-bird," 
so familiar to dwellers of the north ; it is eight and 
one-half inches in length ; its upper plumage is dark 
brown : quills brownish-black; under the wings pale 
yellow ; throat and upper parts of breast and sides 
clear bluish-gray; portion of breast and under parts 
pale yellow; bill broad and thin, and black like the 
feet.* 

Six months later this bird reposed in the Museum 
at Washington, and I received from the ornithologists 
(as I was then at work in a distant island) a notifi- 
cation to the effect that it was a neiv species, and had 
been named the Myiarchus Oberi. Though I after- 
ward discovered many new birds, there was not one 
with which it would have given me greater satisfac- 
tion to have my name identified. 

* The reader is referred, for farther information upon the birds 
captured by the author, to the list of Birds of the Lesser Antilles, 
in the Appendix. 



44 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



Standing there by that silent lake, the morning mist 
enshrouding me, that strange bird in my hand, I fell 
at once into a train of musing suggested by the thought 
that this might prove a species new to the world. There 
is something in such a thought inexpressibly thrilling : 
to feel that to you alone has been vouchsafed the first 
glance at a being that has existed for ages undiscov- 
ered and unknown ; has lived and breathed and sung, 
generation after generation of the same type ; and that 
you, who now hold its breathless form in your hand, 
are the first to look upon it ! At this age of the world, 
when man has searched the remotest confines of the 
globe, to find an animal so high in the scale as this — 
that has heart and lungs, and in whose veins the 
blood courses warm and red — is considered an event 
worthy of chronicling in annals that endure for more 
than a single generation. 

Like these were my reflections that morning, — 
meditations that caused me to ignore the superstition 
of my ignorant friend, whose uneasiness regarding 
the lives of those whom he considered I had placed 
in jeopardy, was not soon allayed. 

Four species of humming-birds greeted me in my 
first camp in the tropics. They fairly lit up the val- 
ley with their gleaming coats ; not a bush or tree in 
flower that did not have one or more hovering above 
it from morning till night. 

Until the New World was discovered, the humming- 
bird was not known to Europe. Though roaming from 
the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic, it is ever American, 
and never extends its migrations beyond the limits of 
the Western continents. Of all the creations of bird-life 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 45 

this is the most beautiful, the most minute. Depend- 
ing upon no single feature for attraction, — upon no 
one plume or tuft of feathers, like the bird of para- 
dise, upon no broad-spread, glaring colors, like the 
parrot, — it is, in fact, the gem of the feathered world. 
So often have poet and naturalist compared it, in the 
brilliance of its flashing colors, to the gems of the min- 
eral kingdom, that they have left little to be said, and 
I can but repeat that it is now a topaz, now an em- 
erald, a turquoise, or a ruby. 

East of the Mississippi and north of Florida there 
is but one species that can be called a regular visitor ; 
this is the well-known ruby-throated humming-bird of 
the North. As we go 'south we find them increasing, 
both in species and in number, until the region of 
greatest abundance is reached near the Equator. 

In Dominica, half-way down the Antilles, and six- 
teen degrees north of the Equator, I found four spe- 
cies to replace the single one visiting the North, the 
smallest of which were as large as the ruby-throat, 
and the largest two inches longer. 

This latter is called the garnet-throated hummer, 
and is five and one-half inches in length, and seven 
in stretch of wing. It is the most abundant, as well 
as the most beautiful, and loves the mountain valleys, 
where are gardens of plantains and fragrant flowers. 
Its bill and feet are black ; a brilliant gorget of garnet 
extends from beak to breast, each feather of which is 
semicircular, and of the deepest crimson with gold 
reflections. It should be seen poised in air hovering 
above a flower, or preening itself upon a dry branch, 
with the full blaze of a tropic sunshine glancing from 
its throat, for one to form an adequate conception of 



46 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

its beauty. The back is black with a blue shade, like 
blue-black velvet ; wing and tail-coverts rich green 
with bronze reflections ; all the feathers, be it noticed, 
changing with every light that falls upon them. There 
are two species that measure an inch less in length, 
that have the crimson or garnet throat replaced by 
metallic green and violet, and with backs of green 
instead of blue-black. The fourth, and smallest, is a 
little fellow, found everywhere, from coast to mountain- 
top, in the gardens of the town and over the barren 
hills. From his eccentric motions, he is called the 
"fou-fou? or crazy-crazy, for he darts hither, thither, 
up, down, round and round, with seemingly aimless 
purpose. He is sober in hue, and has only a little 
pointed crest to give him beauty. But this little hel- 
met of metallic green, now shining golden, now pur- 
ple even, and steel-blue, flashes every ray of the sun 
from its bright surface. His head is generally carried 
with the beak pointing downward, so that the crest is 
always seen 'to the best advantage. 

There were three little chasseurs who used to sup- 
ply me with every bug and bird within their reach. 
It takes a boy, especially a boy of the woods, to find 
out the haunts of the denizens of the forest ; and but 
for these little collectors, my specimens would have 
been fewer in number. Let us follow little Dan, the 
eldest and sharpest of the humming-bird hunters, as 
he goes out for birds. First he goes to a tree called 
the mountain palm, which replaces the cocoa palm 
in the mountains, the latter growing only along the 
coast. Beneath the tree are some fallen leaves, fif- 
teen feet in length ; these he seizes and strips, leav- 
ing the mid-rib bare, a long, slender stem, tapering 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 



47 







ilf|f r to a point. Upon 
this tip he places a lump 
of bird-lime, to make 
which he had collected 
the inspissated juice of the 
bread-fruit, and chewed 
J-iuMMiNG-BiRD j-IuNTER.s. it to the consistency of 

soft wax. Scattered over 
the savanna are many clumps of flowering bushes, 
over whose crimson and snowy blossoms humming- 
birds are dashing, inserting their beaks in the hon- 
eyed corollas ; after active forays, resting upon some 
bare twig, pruning and preening their feathers. Cau- 
tiously creeping toward a bush upon which one of 
these little beauties is resting, the hunter extends the 
palm-rib, with its treacherous coating of gum. The 
bird eyes it curiously, but fearlessly, as it approaches 
his resting-place, even pecking at it ; but the next mo- 
ment he is dangling helplessly, beating the air with 



48 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

buzzing wings in vain efforts to escape the clutches 
of that tenacious gum. 

The humming-birds brought me alive, I would place 
in a large gauze-covered box ; but they seldom sur- 
vived many days, notwithstanding great care. If 
exposed to the light, they kept up a constant flutter- 
ing until the muscles of their wings became so stiff 
they could not close them, and they expired with 
wings wide outstretched. Some would take their cap- 
tivity quietly, and though flitting now and then to the 
front of the box when light was admitted, would sit 
upright upon the perch, giving an occasional chirp, 
and dressing their feathers as serenely as if in the 
open air. They would seem happy and cheerful ; 
but the fact is, they are creatures of light and sun- 
shine, and cannot exist without it. You may give 
them their favorite food of honey and insects, fresh 
flowers every day, with the morning dew yet drip- 
ping from them, and yet, despite your tenderest care, 
they will droop and die. 

It is touching to witness the death of one of these 
innocent beings. Though I have caused more than 
one to lose its life, I never did it without a pang, as 
though I were committing a great wrong. To shoot 
a bird at a distance, and have him fall at a distance 
without a struggle, is not the same as to see him die 
in your hand. To watch the feeble fluttering of the 
stiffening wings, the expiring glance of the fast-dim- 
ming eye, the painful pulsations of the gentle heart, 
the last quiver when all is over, — ah! how often 
has my conscience reproached me when looking upon 
such a scene. Again and again I have almost re- 
solved never to kill another bird, and only the thought 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 49 

that I was doing this work in the interest of science 
kept me to my purpose. 

The little crested sprite bears confinement less easily 
than the others, and rarely survives two or three days. 
Ever}'' morning I would introduce a bough of fragrant 
lime-blossoms, at which they would all dash instantly, 
diving into the flowers with great eagerness. Sugar 
dissolved in water, and diluted honey, was their favor- 
ite food, and they would sip it greedily. Holding 
them by their feet, I would place their beaks in a 
bottle of syrup, when they would rapidly eject their 
tongues and withdraw them, repeating this operation 
until satisfied. The long slender tube, at that time, 
looks like the tongue of a serpent, it is so deeply cleft, 
or bifurcated. They never displayed fear, but would 
readily alight on my finger and glance fearlessly up 
at me, watching an opportunity, however, for escape. 

In some of the islands, Martinique especially, the 
boys shoot the small birds with pellets of clay or hard, 
round seeds, through hollow canes lined with zinc or 
glass. They kill a great many in this way. 

The week before leaving America for the West 
Indies I was the guest of a friend, who one day came 
in with an odd-looking cane in his hand, and said : 
"This is a gun I am going to give you to use in the 
West Indies. It is for shooting humming-birds. And 
you will value it all the more highly when I tell you 
that it once belonged to Dr. Bryant, who used it in his 
numerous excursions in the Bahamas." Dr. Bryant, 
a naturalist of note, and donor to the Boston Society 
of Natural History of the unsurpassed La Fresnaye 
collection of birds, spent many years in the West 
Indies previous to his death, and contributed much 
4 



50 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

to our knowledge of the ornithology of those islands. 
The gun looked, as I said, like a cane. The bar- 
rel was slender, and painted to resemble a stick of 
mahogany ; the stock unscrewed, and could be put in 
the pocket; and as the ramrod went inside the barrel, 
where it was secured by a tompion, and hammer and 
trigger shut down out of sight, this gun made a very 
convenient walking-stick. Doubly valued by me on 
account of having belonged to my friend and to a natu- 
ralist whom all the world knew, this gun accompanied 
me in all my wanderings. It was an excellent arm, and 
I have shot more than five hundred birds with it alone. 
Not only on humming-birds, but on larger game, did 
I try its shooting qualities. For hummers it needed 
but a taste of powder and a thimbleful of dust shot. 

Not for the collecting of specimens merely was my 
mission ; I was to obtain all the information possible 
of the habits of the birds — of their home life. It was 
in this study of them in their forest retreats that I took 
keen delight, and considered the shooting of them as 
a necessary evil to procure their identification. 

In one of my daily rambles for this purpose, I en- 
tered a gloomy glen in the deep forest. Soon as my 
eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I espied a 
humming-bird dancing in the air. There was not a 
flower in sight, and he did not fly as when in pur- 
suit of nectar-bearing flowers, but hovered more on 
suspended wing, darting sidewise, backward and for- 
ward, with the body in an almost erect position. If 
through the deep shade a sunbeam slanted athwart 
the glen, his throat gleamed like a ruby. Now, this 
fantastic dance was not for pleasure, but for food. I 
ascertained that at such times they are in pursuit of 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 51 

insects ; have seen the insect swarms, and so long 
as there remain any in sight — and even long after 
they have disappeared from my view — the bird darts 
hither and thither, snapping them up with great rapid- 
ity. At such times he does not content himself with 
a sip here and there and then alight upon some twig 
or liane, as when gathering honey, but evidently con- 
siders the fleeting nature of the prey he is pursuing, 
and shoots from one hunting-ground to another till he 
has obtained his fill. 

Beneath me, lining the walls of a deep gorge in 
whose depths a little rivulet tinkled, was a broad area 
of the plant called by the natives balisier, or wild 
plantain. The leaves of this plant are about six feet 
in length, broad and green, like the leaves of a 
banana. From the bases of these leaves shoot up 
long spikes of crimson and yellow cups, arranged 
like the flowers of the gladiolus. They are boat- 
shaped and about three inches in length, and their 
bright colors lighted up this shady spot like sunshine. 
Above their broad silken leaves Garnet-throat hov- 
ered a moment to scan the interior of these flowers, 
perchance he might see an insect for him there. A 
sudden desire came oy,er me to possess the bird, and 
quick as the thought was formed my gun was at my 
shoulder, and its sharp report echoed through the 
silent woods. High and low I searched, but could 
not rind him, until, looking down upon the spot for 
a final glance, I caught sight of his gleaming throat 
which a stray sunbeam had lighted on. He lay en- 
shrined in one of those golden caskets, leg uplifted and 
wings loose spread, eclipsing even those bright tints of 
orange and crimson in the vivid glow of his gorget. 



52 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 

A WILD CAT. — TREE-FERNS. — MOUNTAIN PALMS. — A RARE 
HUMMING-BIRD. — THE VALLEY OF DESOLATION. — MISLED BY 
A BOTTLE. — BOILING SPRINGS. — ■ HOT STREAMS. — SULPHUR 
BATHS. — THE SOLFATARA.— BUILDING THE AJOUPA. — COOK- 
ING BREAKFAST IN A BOILING SPRING. 

Dominica's fire-cleft summits 
Rise from bluest of blue oceans ; 
Dominica's palms and plantains 
Feel the trade-wind's mighty motions, 
Swaying with impetuous stress 
The West Indian wilderness. 



Dominica's crater-caldron 
Seethes against its lava-beaches ; 
Boils in misty desolation ; — 
Seldom foot its border reaches ; 
Seldom any traveler's eye 
Penetrates its barriers high. 

Lucy Larcom. 

THE record of the weather for a month : showery, 
cool and delightful. On the coast it was ten 
degrees hotter ; but in this elevated valley, two thou- 
sand .feet above the sea, the eastern peaks caught the 
flying clouds from the " trades " and precipitated their 
burden of moisture. 




The Boiling Lake 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 53 

For two weeks I had been awaiting a change of 
the moon that was expected to bring a drier season, and 
one night my friend Jean Baptiste came to my hut with 
the welcome news, "To-morrow make weddah." As 
he predicted, the weather cleared. There came to me 
the sons and nephews of Jean Baptiste (four in num- 
ber), who were laden, and departed one after the 
other. Francois had a large Carib pannier filled 
with yams, coffee and eggs, a blanket, his never- 
absent cutlass, and a gun ; Michael took my camera, 
a bag of provisions, cutlass and gun ; Joseph, my dark 
box with photographic chemicals, cutlass and gun; 
Seeyohl, a large sack of yams and plantains, cut- 
lass and gun. With my game-basket and humming- 
bird gun, I followed immediately after my guides. 

We crossed the three streams hurrying from the 
mountain to the precipice, where they are compressed 
into two magnificent waterfalls, and climbed the hills 
beyond, over a path of interlaced roots, from among 
which the earth had been washed, leaving a perfect 
ladder, which served us both in ascending and de- 
scending. Past one of the little " provision grounds," 
where, among fallen and decayed trees, were growing 
lusty plantains, bananas, yams and tanniers ; across 
another stream and up farther to the crown of the ridge, 
where the path led through cool and open " high 
woods," where the sun " can't come," and where -pcr- 
dri.\\ or mountain doves, sprang up from all about us, 
and ramicrs, or wood-pigeons, dashed in and out of 
the tall tree-crowns. At eleven o'clock we reached 
"La Riviere Dejeuner," where we breakfasted upon 
boiled eggs and yams, with clear cold water for drink. 

Our dogs (we had four curs trained to hunt the 



54 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

agouti) left us in the middle of our meal and darted 
into the forest with loud yelps. Francois followed 
them, encouraging them with peculiar cries ; for these 
mountaineers have a sympathetic understanding with 
all animate objects about them, and can guide, hie on 
and recall their dogs simply by varying their voice. 
Frangois urged them on, but in a few minutes they 
came to a stand-still, and their excited yelps assured 
us that whatever they were pursuing was brought to 
bay. We thought they had an agouti — a small ani- 
mal, in size between a rabbit and a woodchuck — but 
the execrations of Francois a little later, which pre- 
ceded his appearance from the deep shade, prepared 
us for the unwonted sight, in these wilds, of a wild 
cat. It was not a wild cat in the true sense of the 
word — not a Lynx rufus — being only a " chat mar on " 
— a cat of the domesticated species run wild. It was 
gray in color, striped with black, and larger and more 
strongly made than the cats of the coast, who do not 
have to forage for a living ; showing how, in time, a 
new species might be possibly the result of this change 
of life. It lives in the deep woods, preying upon 
small birds, lizards and crabs, and is as savage and 
untamable as any specimen of the genus to be found 
in American back-woods. My men skinned it at my 
request and wrapped the skin in a plantain leaf, to be 
hung up until our return. The most weird thing 
about this animal was the eye ; the iris yellow, chang- 
ing to green, but seen glowering from darkness it was 
red — blood-red — red as fire, that glaring, glassy red 
which I have seen in the panther, and which makes 
the wild felidce so terrible to face in their lairs. 

We had here to climb the sides of a steep gorge, the 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 55 

walls of which were almost perpendicular, where slip- 
pery roots and hanging lianes only, enabled us to 
accomplish the ascent. One portion of our route was 
through a bowl-shaped depression containing a few 
acres, in which seemed concentrated all the glorious 
vegetation indigenous to these tropical forests. Hun- 
dreds and thousands of plants of strange and beauti- 
ful shapes were massed together in prodigal confusion. 
Conspicuous among them was the grand tree-fern. 

Those who have seen in glass-house or garden of 
acclimatization, only, the stunted specimens of this 
plant, can form hardly a conception of the grandeur 
of these arborescent ferns in their rrative homes. They 
are rarely found in perfect development at a lesser al- 
titude than one thousand feet above the sea, and it is 
in the " high-woods " belt alone that they attain their 
greatest height and perfect symmetry. They love 
cool and moist situations, revel in shade and delight 
in solitude. " If," says Humboldt, " they descend to- 
ward the sea coast, it is only under cover of thick 
shade." I have seen them in these mountains, in the 
vegetable zone most favorable for their growth — that 
between fifteen hundred and twenty-five hundred feet 
above the sea — of a height of thirty or thirty-five feet. 
Then, truly, were they impressive in their combination 
of delicately traced leaves and slender stems ; essential- 
ly children of the tropics. There is sublimity in their 
expression. There is a suggestiveness of a benedic- 
tion in those lace-like leaves, which are spread above 
the head of the observer like outstretched hands, and 
which only move gently and tremulously, ever pulsat- 
ing to the slightest breath of air. The light that fillers 
through the cocoa-palm leaves is wonderfully lambent 



56 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

and golden, but cannot compare with the chastened 
sunbeams that reach one standing beneath this queen 
of the mountain solitudes ; perchance the sun can pen- 
etrate to it. There are several species, one of which, 
with unusually prickly stem (the Cyathca Imrayana) , 
is named for Doctor Imray, a resident botanist of the 
island. 

Though the ferns replace, in a measure, the palms, in 
the ascent from coast to mountain-top, yet there is one 
species that climbs to as high an altitude as the fern, 
and is found everywhere on the mountain side until 
the sub-alpine vegetation is reached. This is the 
mountain palm, the " palmiste montagne," the "moun- 
tain cabbage," Euterpe montana. Euterpe, goddess 
of lyric poetry ; no tree of the forest more fitly sym- 
bolizes the realm of song over which she presides. In 
every curve and movement is grace and feeling, 
whether the long leaves wave gently to the mid-day 
breeze, or whether they beat wildly their sustaining 
trunks in the violence of the hurricane. It is not tall 
for a palm, but is slender and has a lovely crown, and 
ministers to the wants of the mountaineers in many 
ways, as will be seen farther on. Inhabiting the same 
region with the tree-fern and loving the same cool, 
solitary shades, it accompanies it in its march up the 
mountains, and ceases with it at the upper edge of the 
high-woods belt. Two such creations were enough 
to give these forests world-wide fame ; but there are a 
thousand others which I cannot describe for want of 
knowledge, nor if I could, for lack of space. 

We passed streams every half-mile large enough to 
turn a mill in the rainy season, but which were then 
low. Up their rocky beds the trail pursued its way ; 






BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 57 

rou^h, slippery work it was, with many watery 
escapades and some falls — waterfalls. Through 
dense groups of callas, and other water plants, we 
were obliged to force our way. At a jam of trees 
which I was painfully climbing, I saw a humming- 
bird poised above a flower. I had been sufficiently 
long in these mountains, I thought, to procure every 
species ; but this was different from any I had shot, 
and consequently he was at once added to my other 
victims, and was picked up below by one of my guides, 
as he floated like a golden leaf upon the stream. ' It 
proved to be a rare species, found heretofore only at 
the mouth of the Amazon, and rare even there, (the 
Thalurania wagleri) ; and it now rests in Washing- 
ton, one of the many types of West Indian birds I had 
the pleasure of sending to our National Museum. 

Leaving the stream, we climbed another steep hill- 
side, and traveled along a ridge, on either side of 
which are valleys leading to the sea and ocean. Per- 
drix and grivcs, or thrushes, started up at intervals. 
The ' r siffle nr montagne" (the " mountain whistler ") 
sent up liquid melody from every ravine ; warblers 
were few, and humming-birds the only ones abundant. 
These, and even insects, grew rare and finally ceased 
entirely as the lake valley was reached, and the sul- 
phur fumes, ever increasing in volume, were borne to 
us in dense clouds. We made a detour and again 
took the stream, now lessened to a trickling run, where 
everything was decaying, reeking with moisture, and 
slippery with confervoid growth. No snakes appeared 
now, not even a lizard ; animal life was absent in this 
approach to the infernal regions. The trail was bar- 
ricaded by fallen trees, detached rocks, tangled lia- 



58 £AMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

nas; flowers were few, the crimson cups of the wild 
plantain were alone conspicuous. 

After three hours of hard scrambling we were re- 
warded by a view of the first sulphur valley contain- 
ing the "-petite soufriere" from which steam ascended 
in clouds. It is a basin several hundred feet deep, 
one side of which is broken down, surrounded by 
steep hills, the valley walls of which, mostly denuded 
by land-slides, are covered elsewhere by a sparse 
growth of vegetation. Seeing an opening in the trees, 
I prepared to descend, though the trail was faint and 
appeared old. But, being in advance and impatient 
to get at the wonder below, I ventured alone, and had 
proceeded but a few rods when I was assured by the 
sight of a familiar object — a bottle — on a stick. I 
am not sure but that a sight of it caused me to 
depart from the beaten path ; at any rate, I was di- 
verted, though the bottle was in-verted. A shout from 
above halted me just as I had reached the brink of a 
precipitous bank, the earth of which was beginning 
to crumble beneath my feet. Dejectedly I retraced 
my steps, my faith in the goodness of mankind some- 
what shaken. Months later, while conversing with a 
good friend — Dr. Nicholls, of Roseau — it came out 
that he was the culprit ; that he had placed the bottle 
there in the kindness of his heart, as the good Indian 
is said to have set up a stake in every bog in which 
he got bemired, as a warning to others. 

A warning ! In this thirsty land a bottle is as 
necessary to one's existence as a loaf of bread ; and I 
'have met with those who held it more directly essential 
to the preservation of life than the generally recog- 
nized "staff." 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 



59 




The Tropic Stream. 



Nearly half an hour's careful work was necessary 
to descend that steep wall, clinging to roots and stems 
of small trees, at the end of which we reached a 
gentle slope facing south, covered with trees of goodly 
size. Here were the remains of an old encamp- 
ment, empty bottles and sulphur specimens. A stream 
trickled near by, which we followed to the sulphur 
basin, whence sulphuretted fumes ascended that would 
have choked out the stench of a thousand rotten eggs. 
This was but the beginning of the valley of wonders, 
the portal to the enchanted land of mysteries. The 



60 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

basin was covered with rocks and earth, white and 
yellow, perforated like the bottom of a colander, 
whence issued steam and vapor and sulphur fumes, 
hot air and fetid gases. There was a full head 
of steam on, puffing through these vents with the 
noise of a dozen engines. There were spouting 
springs of hot water ; some were boiling over the 
surface, some sending up a hot spray, some puffing 
like high-pressure steamers. Clouds of steam drifted 
across this small valley, now obscuring every rock and 
hole, now lifting a few feet, only to settle again. The 
silver in my pockets and the brass mountings of my 
camera were soon discolored to a blue-black hue. 
Several streams ran out and down, uniting in a com- 
mon torrent : streams hot, impregnated with sulphur ; 
streams cold, clear and sparkling, only a yard apart ; 
water of all colors, from blue and green to yellow and 
milk-white. 

The heat of a West Indian noon was made tenfold 
oppressive by the hot, moisture-laden atmosphere. My 
foot slipped, as we groped our way through the clouds 
of vapor, and got slightly scalded by breaking through 
the thin crust that covered the boiling caldron beneath. 
We descended between nuge white rocks and bleached 
and dying trees to a stream of marvelous beauty, pick- 
ing our way among volcanic bowlders. At once the 
scene changed ; we entered a ravine through which 
flowed the streams from above, now mingled in one 
tepid torrent, along whose banks grew, rank and lux- 
uriant, plants of such tropic loveliness as made me 
hold my breath in delight and surprise. Everywhere 
plashed and tinkled musical waterfalls and cascades ; 
from all sides little streams came pouring in their trib- 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 6l 

ute ; here a cold and sparkling stream, there another 
boiling hot, its track betokened by a wreath of steam. 
There were tree-ferns, wild plantains, palms, orchids 
and wild pines, tropical vines, lianas, strange flowers, 
gay epiphytes. Up and down and across stretched the 
lianas, forming a net-work which my guides were 
obliged to sever repeatedly with their great cutlasses. 
Along the bank of this stream and through the water 
we walked in delight — at least I did — for it seemed 
a very tropical Eden. And yet on all sides of us was 
barrenness and desolation ; these beautiful forms were 
all created by the action of hot water upon the scanty 
soil. Climbing, slipping, scrambling, we at last 
reached a steep hill-side, where trees of different kinds 
were growing ; and here we rested, for here was the 
spot selected for our camp. 

But there yet remained the Lake, to which all these 
strange sights were but preparatory scenes. It was 
but a twenty -minutes' walk, or climb, to the basin. 
We could hear it roaring behind the hill. Leaving 
superfluous luggage, and two men to make camp, I 
started on again with nothing but gun and photo- 
graphic apparatus. We reached another river, which 
was tumbling noisily over blanched tree-trunks and 
sulphur-encrusted rocks, and came out of a large 
mound of scoria? and pumice white as snow. Its 
water was milk-white from the quantity of magnesia 
held in solution, and steaming hot. Into it poured 
minor streams of every shade, from white to ochreous, 
and one black as ink. 

Up over large rocks, covered with soft sphagnum, 
green and white in color ; up, over and through rapids 
and around falls, passing feeding streamlets of hot, 



62 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

cold, mineral and pure water by turns, into a basin (at 
the immediate base of a high mountain), with heaps 
of sulphur-stones scattered over a smooth floor of bi- 
tumen, with a jet of steam escaping here and there 
from a hole or fissure in its quaking crust ; up the 
banks of a little stream of sulphur water, subterranean 
at times, leaving the rivers behind us, and having a 
steep bank before us, which we quickly scaled, and 
there revealed to our gaze, lay the Lake. 

My first feeling was that of disappointment, for the 
surface of the lake, usually so turbulent, was placid, 
save in the center a slight movement — more from the 
escape of gas than from ebullition — disturbed it, and 
sent ever-expanding wavelets to the shore. It is sunk 
in a huge basin, which it has hollowed out for itself. 
Undoubtedly, it was onCe a spring, or geyser, which, 
by the volume and violence of its flow, increased and 
deepened the aperture through which it escaped, until 
it reached its present dimensions. 

The height of its surrounding walls I estimate 
at from eighty to one hundred feet, and its di- 
ameter at from three hundred to four hundred. As 
there have been no accurate measurements — indeed, 
the total number of white men who have looked upon 
it is not a score — its area will long be a matter of 
speculation only. The banks are of ferruginous earth, 
with stones and rocks imbedded, as nearly perpendic- 
ular as their consistency will allow, and constantly 
caving and falling in. 

Two streams of cold water fall into the lake on the 
north, above which rise high hills. Down the bed of 
one of these we found a place to leap. My apparatus 
was passed down, and I at once proceeded to secure a 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 63 

picture of the lake. It was then four o'clock, and the 
sun had dropped very near the margin of the western 
hills, and just lingered sufficiently to allow me to 
secure the first photograph ever made in these moun- 
tains. Well for me the lake was in a state of qui- 
escence. Well for the success of my picture that the 
water was not in a wild fury of ebullition, and that its 
basin was not filled with steam, as it had ever been 
found before. 

. Directly opposite the stream in which I stood was 
the rent in the wall through which flowed the overflow 
from the lake, when it was at its work, through which 
at such times poured a stream of sulphur-water that 
formed a torrent and descended to the coast below. 
Through this gap I could look away south, across and 
over green mountains to the shores of Martinique 
gleaming through the mist in the waning sunlight, 
twenty miles away, yet seemingly within an hour's 
row of yonder ridge. This rent is from thirty to forty 
feet in width at the top, and perhaps fifty in depth. 

I descended to the lake margin. The rim of 
recent subsidence was clearly defined : a belt of black, 
yellow and gray deposit, some three feet wide. It was 
narrower on the second day, and the ebullition had 
much increased, showing that, though I was the first 
to discover it in repose, it must be intermittent in 
character, and was then preparing to boil forth again. 
For this effect I waited long, much desiring to see it 
in that state, but was not gratified, though the dis- 
turbance and noises continued to increase and the 
water to rise. 

The temperature of the water, as far out as I could 
reach my thermometer, was ninety-six degrees ; of 



64 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the air at the same time, sixty-seven degrees ; of the 
streams falling into the lake, sixty-five degrees, Fahr- 
enheit. Some months previously, Dr. Nicholls, one 
of the original exploring party who discovered this 
lake, found it at a temperature of one hundred and 
ninety-six degrees ; and Mr. Prestoe, of the Botanic 
Gardens of Trinidad, recorded from one hundred and 
eighty to one hundred and ninety degrees. They 
also found it fiercely boiling, the whole crater filled 
with steam, and could obtain only occasionally a 
glimpse of the water and surrounding walls. They 
found no bottom with a line one hundred and ninety- 
five feet long, ten feet from the water's edge. With 
Mr. Prestoe, I conclude that this solfatara, by widen- 
ing and deepening its outlet, will eventually lose its 
lake character and become merely a geyser. 

From the high bank above the lake, near the gap 
through which the waters find egress, is a fine view of 
the whole northern wall, with the streams falling down 
from the background of mountain, the hollows and 
miniature valleys and peaks beyond. The river-bed 
below is dry and yellow ; but huge rocks, tons in 
weight, that the waters have moved from their beds, 
attest the force of the current when the lake is at its 
height. From the north, coming down into another 
desolate valley, are small streams — yellow, white, 
green, blue. A spring boils up through a hole three 
feet across, overtopping the surface eight inches or 
more. The main volume of hot water comes from 
higher up the mountains, and there is, I think, another 
source as large as this, which at present is unknown. 
The mountains around are green with low shrubs, 
and from the bank above the lake I secured a giant 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 65 

lycopodium, which is not found elsewhere in any 
abundance. 

We retraced our steps about an hour before sun- 
set, and found on the hillside a comfortable camp, 
constructed by Francois and Joseph during our ab- 
sence. The ajoufia, or camp constructed in haste, is a 
peculiarity of these forests. Regarding the etymology 
of the word, I am in doubt. Humboldt speaks of 
the ajufias,' or kings' houses, among the Caribs of 
South America, which were used as houses of enter- 
tainment for travelers. Whatever the origin of the 
term, it is now fixed in the patois of the mountain- 
eers to designate a hut thrown up hastily for tem- 
porarv occupation — what we, in America, would call 
a " camp." Mv men first constructed a framework of 
light poles, tied together with roots and vines, and 
covered it with the broad leaves of the balisier, or 
wild plantain {Hcliconia bchia). This plant, which 
grows everywhere in shade and moisture, is one of 
the attractive features of the vegetation here. Its leaf 
is like an elongated banana-leaf, but not so wide, and 
with greater strength and toughness. 

Like the palm, this plant serves a great variety of 
uses. Its root is boiled and fed to hogs, I believe ; 
the mid-rib of the leaf is stripped and split and woven 
into baskets ; the leaves are used for the thatching of 
huts, as substitutes for table-cloths and plates in the 
woods, as envelopes in which to wrap anything of 
soft nature, as butter or honey, — in fact, as wrap- 
ping for everything portable, the tissue is so fine and 
flexible. The voung leaves are our substitute for 
drinking-cups ; and it is more convenient to twist off 
an overhanging leaf and throw it away when done, 

5 



66 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

than to bear about with you a clumsy cup. Its utility, 
then, is second only to that of the cocoa palm. 

They had brought up huge bundles of the leaves 
from the river below. Slicing the under side of the 
mid-rib half-way through with a diagonal cut, leaving 
a barb by which to attach it to the cross-pole, Fran- 
cois handed the leaves to Joseph, who rapidly placed 
them in position, attached to the pole and kept in 
place by the projecting point, one row overlapping 
the other. In a short time they had made a thick 
roof, completely impervious to water, which was good 
for a week, so long as the leaves remained green and 
were not split and shrunken by the sun. 

A raised platform of poles, all cut with the cutlass, 
was covered with a good layer of leaves, and upon 
this I spread my blanket and reposed quietly all night, 
my faithful boys stretched upon the ground, lulled to 
sleep by the rushing of the waterfalls. 

"La belle," the firefly, illumined our camp in the 
evening, and an odorous fire of the gum of the flam- 
beau-tree gave both light and fragrant incense. Over 
this, Joseph, in his French patois and broken Eng- 
lish, told the story of the discovery of the lake by 
Mr. Watt, the one who first surmised its existence, in 
1875. This gentleman, a magistrate in the colony, 
was prone to wander in the mountains in search of 
adventure. One day he had penetrated farther than 
usual, by following a valley that led up into the inte- 
rior, and noticed in the air distinct and powerful sul- 
phur fumes. Later, he set out to ascertain the cause, 
taking with him two negroes as guides, but, through 
the pusillanimity of his men, who abandoned him, 
was lost in the forest for several days. Let Joseph 
tell the story : 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 67 

"Monsieur Watt he walk, walk, walk, pour tree 
day ; he lose hees clo's, hees pant cut oft", he make 
nozing pour manger but root; no knife, no nozing ; 
hees guide was neegah [the mountaineers, though 
some of them negroes themselves, have great con- 
tempt for town negroes] ; zey was town neegah, and 
leab him and loss him. He come to black man's 
house in ze wood, and ze black man zink he jombie, 
and he run ; when he come back wiz some mo' men, 
.for look for jombie , Monsieur Watt he make coople 
of sign, he have to lost hees voice and was not speak, 
and zey deescover heem." 

At daybreak we were stirring. I descended the 
bank and waded up the stream to take my morning 
bath. There were two streams, one hot, one cold, 
which ran in near channels, meeting below. Fol- 
lowing the warm one, stepping from pool to pool, I 
reached a fall about twelve feet in height, surrounded 
by a wealth of tropical plants, from the depths of 
which it suddenly appeared. And it was hot — or 
just as hot as skin could bear — as I sidled under it, 
first a hand, then an arm, then a shoulder, until the 
whole volume of warm water fell squarely upon my 
head. Ah ! it was the perfection of luxurious sensa- 
tions. I essayed to shout aloud in my delight, but 
the falling water drowned my voice, and I paddled in 
the pool in silent ecstasy, drawing in long breaths, 
and allowing the rushing of the water, the delicious 
warmth of the bath, the flying spray, to lull me to 
repose. I think I should have fallen asleep had I 
not been warned, by slipping from the rock on which 
I sat, that I was becoming unconscious. It was too 
blissful to leave, too soothing, and I stepped from un- 



68 CAMPS IN THE CAR.IBBEES. 

der the warm douche only to return again and again. 
Reaching out my hand, I placed it in a stream of cold 
water, sulphur water at that, while I sat in this tepid 
bath. 

What benefits might be derived by those unfor- 
tunates afflicted with rheumatism and kindred com- 
plaints, from a dip in these healing waters ! They 
would need a balloon, though, as means of convey- 
ance, for only travel-toughened backs and sturdy 
limbs can accomplish this journey at present. 

My guides boiled coffee, and, that imbibed, we 
shouldered our traps and marched back on the home- 
ward trail. We reached the first Soufriere — the val- 
ley of desolation — and halted, to allow me to take a 
few photographs, and to cook our breakfast. The 
sulphur fumes were so strong as to form a coating of 
sulphide of silver on my negatives, but not to an ex- 
tent to injure them. 

The largest boiling spring is five feet across. As 
some of these seemingly boiling springs are not in 
complete ebullition, but have their waters agitated 
from escape of gases, I took care to plunge my ther- 
mometer into all. Several registered two hundred 
and eight degrees — the lake is more than two thou- 
sand feet above sea-level — and many one hundred 
and forty and one hundred and sixty degrees. One 
unfortunate experimenter, later in the season, plunged 
a " store " thermometer into one of these springs, and 
burst it, as its capacity was not equal to such high 
temperature. 

Perforating the broad fields of calcined stones are 
little holes, whence issue steam and hot air ; very 
few are inactive. Some, on the hillside, are large 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA 69 

as an open grate, and have that shape. Into these 
you can look deep down into black holes, sulphur 
crystals in beautiful golden needles lining throat and 
flue. It required great care not to break through 
the crust in many places. My guide was constantly 
warning me : " Have attention where you make you 
feets ! " 

While I was preparing chemicals and collecting 
minerals, my boys were busily cooking our break- 
fast; and they prepared it without fire, too, and so 
expeditiously as to cause me wonder. In the forest 
they had found some wild yams ; Francois had shot 
a few giant thrushes ; there were a few eggs remain- 
ing of those we had brought with us. 

Curiously I watched them at their work. Tying 
the yams in a bit of cloth, and tying that to the end 
of a stick, Joseph thrust them into the large boiling 
spring. A few minutes later — I do not know just 
how many — he drew them out completely boiled. 
The eggs were treated in like manner, and lastly the 
birds. Then we withdrew to the shade of a near 
clump of balisiers, on the bank of a clear spring, 
plucked a few leaves for plates, for cups, for napkins, 
for protection from the damp earth as we sat down, 
sprinkled our curiously-cooked food with pepper and 
salt, and feasted merrily, though half strangled by 
the sulphur fumes. In watching this cooking process, 
I could not but think of our own wonderful geysers 
in the Yellowstone, where explorers caught trout in a 
stream and cooked them in a boiling spring, without 
removing the fish from the hook or changing their 
own positions. 

Then we turned our backs upon this valley of won- 



70 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ders — this collection of craters within a crater long^ 
ago inactive. My guides placed their loads upon 
their heads, and we climbed the hills, keeping time 
to the rhythmic pulsations of a steam-vent, which 
ejected its vapor with regular puffs, the din of which 
rang through the forest. 

I cannot but feel how poor and meagre is this 
description of that wonderful Boiling Lake, hid in 
the bosom of those solitary mountains in that tropical 
island. The time may come — and it will be better 
for Americans if it were speedily to come — when the 
great attractions of these islands will be better known, 
and I may not be able to say, as I say now with truth, 
I am the only American who has seen Dominica's 
Boiling Lake. 

We reached Riviere Dejeuner just at dark. I was 
ahead. And here let me explain how I acquired 
a reputation as a pedestrian, and why, if you speak 
of the writer to one of these mountaineers, he will 
shrug his shoulders and exclaim, "Ah! Monsieur 
Fred, he walk like ze debbil !" Here is a statement 
of the reason ; and I leave it to any sane person if 
he would not have done the same under similar cir- 
stances : 

Each member of our party had a gun — my four men 
and myself. In going up and down those cliffs, the 
guns carried by my guides were sure to point at me, 
no matter how I would try to dodge them. If I lagged 
behind, I was confronted by a black muzzle ; if I went 
ahead, two or more pointed at my exposed back. 
Now, I have carried a gun ever since I could well use 
one, and for two years have had one constantly by 
my side ; but I never allow one to be pointed at me, 



BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 7 1 

if I am aware of it. Going homeward, I stretched 
my legs to their utmost, and kept ahead, scrambling 
over rocks and tree-trunks, and swinging myself down 
steep banks by the roots of trees. My trowsers were 
torn into shreds ; the perspiration started, legs shook, 
and arms trembled. But I was determined to keep 
out of range of those dreaded guns ; and I did, ar- 
riving at my cabin full half an hour ahead of my 
guides, who had supposed me lost and had detailed 
two of their number to look me up. Jean Baptiste, 
my host and forager-for-food, stood in the doorway 
with a candle, and inside there stood a welcome table 
with a good supper — yams and eggs and tender 
mountain cabbage. 

Speaking of my hot bath to Jean Baptiste, that 
jewel instantly exclaimed that he had forgotten to 
show me the best in the island, situated only a gun- 
shot from my hut. Next day we visited it. Beneath 
tall gommier trees stretching down lianes forty feet 
long, shaded by broad-leaved plantains, was a pool 
twenty feet across, made by damming a little brooklet 
with volcanic rock. Its bottom was stone and gravel. 
A tree-trunk had fallen across the stream, on which I 
threw my clothes. The runlet was tepid, the pool a 
little warmer. Suddenly my foot grew hot, as though 
stung by a scorpion, and I became aware that the 
pool was heated from below by small jets of hot water 
forced up through crevices in the rocky crust. How 
thick was that crust? Down the hillside, into the bath, 
trickled warm water. A grotto had been hollowed out 
by the action of these streams, and from this water 
was spouted in hot spray and jets, heating the bath 
for a square yard around. This grotto was lined with 



72 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

crystals of sulphur, lime, and magnesia, and in places 
was green like chalcedony — a most beautiful minia- 
ture of some cave I have seen, where stalagmites of 
every shape were colored by salts of iron. 

Floating in this healing pool, in an element delight- 
fully warm, I resigned myself to the unalloyed delight 
that dripping water, tropical plants, and trees, and 
balmy atmosphere, all contribute to induce. Floating 
thus in dreamy sensuousness, I wondered vaguely 
why this free life of the forest, untrammeled by care 
or desire of gain, could not always exist for me. It 
was too irksome to even think an answer ; impossible 
to give it utterance ; and it remains unanswered to 
this day. 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 73 



CHAPTER VI. 

AMONG THE CARIBS. 

THEIR PEACEFUL LIFE. — FRUITS AND FOOD. — THE SECOND VOY- 
AGE OF COLUMBUS. — DISCOVERY OF THE CARIBS. ■ — FIERCE 
NATURE AND INTELLIGENCE OF THE "CANNIBAL PAGANS." — 
UNLIKE THE NATIVES OF THE GREATER ANTILLES. — THE 
CARIB RESERVATION IN DOMINICA. — MY CAMP IN CARIB 
COUNTRY. — TWO SOVEREIGNS. — THE VILLAGE. — THE HOUSES. 

— CATCHING A COOK. — A TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION. — LIGHT- 
ING A ROOM WITH FIRE-FLIES. — '"LOOK ZE COOK." — LABOR. 

— DOMESTIC RELATIONS. — A DRUNKEN INDIAN. — WILD MEN 
AND NAKED CHILDREN. — CARIB PANNIERS. — THE ONLY ART 
PRESERVED FROM THEIR ANCESTORS. 

IN two of the smaller islands of the Caribbean Sea 
lives a vestige of a once powerful people. A 
people with a history ; an unwritten and forgotten 
history, running back unnumbered ages, farther than 
we can trace it ; but beginning to be known to civil- 
ized man when the existence of America was first be- 
coming evident to his awakened senses. 

Peaceful and gentle, singularly mild and affectionate, 
they dwell happily in their rude houses of thatch, draw- 
ing their sustenance from mother earth with occasional 
forays upon the sea. 

Bananas, plantains, yams, and tanniers are the 
crops they cultivate, and altogether relv upon. The 
bread-fruit grows about their cabins, and the mango 



74 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

and cocoa palm, embowering their dwellings in per- 
petual shade ; and the calabash (furnishing nearly all 
their vessels for culinary use) spreads its gnarled 
branches, with a wealth of useful products, at their 
doors. Guavas grow wild, and the berries and buds 
of the mountain palm, with many other fruits and nuts 
of the forest, furnish them with food. The many 
rivers yield to them delicious crayfish, water snails, 
and limpets. If they can get rum, now and then, they 
drink it and are happy — they are happy any way, 
even without this occasional luxury. 

In a land that is theirs by right ; beneath a sky 
ever genial, though not always smiling ; able to satisfy 
hunger by little toil in the garden, or exertion upon 
the sea, or in the river, it is not strange that they 
should be content with the bounties of the present, nor 
care to question the precarious prospects of the future. 

In the morning the coolness of the bath provokes 
one to linger, and later the warmth of the sun seems 
to warn one from much exertion, while the heat of 
mid-day positively forbids it. The increased coolness 
of the afternoon, when the sun dips down behind the 
mountain ridge, leaving two good hours of dreamy 
shadow, tempts one to give one's self over to the enjoy- 
ment of mere existence. Thus the days pass away 
in this delightful clime. And now, that you, reader, 
may better understand who are these people whom I 
would describe in the following pages, allow me to go 
back a few centuries ; let me turn, in fact, to the first 
page in American history, and let the same great navi- 
gator who opened the way for the discovery of our 
continent, relate the story of the finding of the Caribs. 

Columbus sailed away from Cadiz, on his second 



AMONG THE CARIES. 75 

voyage, with a large fleet, fully equipped, September 
25, 1493. On the second day of November he first 
sighted land, and in exploring the shores of the island 
— Guadeloupe — he found the people of whom he 
was in search. " Here the Spaniards first saw the 
anana, or pine-apple, the flavor and fragrance of 
which astonished and delighted them. But what 
struck them with horror was the sight of human bones, 
vestiges, as they supposed, of unnatural repasts, and 
skulls apparently used as vases and other household 
utensils. These dismal objects convinced them that 
they were now in the abodes of the Cannibals, or 
Caribs, whose predatory expeditions and ruthless char- 
acter rendered them the terror of these seas. 

"In several hamlets they met with proofs of the 
cannibal propensities of the natives. Human limbs 
were suspended to the beams of the houses as if curing 
for provisions; the head of a young man, recently 
killed, was yet bleeding ; some parts of his body were 
roasting before the lire, others boiling with the flesh 
of geese and parrots." 

On the following day the boats landed and suc- 
ceeded in taking and bringing off a boy and several 
women. From them Columbus learned that the in- 
habitants of this island were in league with two neigh- 
boring islands, but made war upon all the rest. They 
even went on predatory enterprises, in canoes made 
from the hollowed trunks of trees, to the distance of 
one hundred and fifty leagues. 

Their arms were bows and arrows, pointed with the 
bones of fishes or shells of tortoise, and poisoned with 
the juice of a certain herb. They made descents 
upon the islands, ravaged the villages, carried off the 



76 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

youngest and handsomest of the women, and made 
prisoners of the men, to be killed and eaten. "The 
admiral learned from them that most of the men of 
the island were absent, the king having sailed some 
time before, with ten canoes and three hundred war- 
riors, on a cruise in quest of prisoners and booty. 
When the men went forth on these expeditions, the 
women remained to defend their shores from inva- 
sion." 

This island of Guadeloupe was their northernmost 
stronghold. Continuing his cruise northward, to- 
ward Haspaniola, and coasting the islands, Columbus 
discovered the last resident Caribs at Santa Cruz. 
Here a boat's crew of Spaniards attacked an Indian 
canoe containing several men and women. The fight 
was long and desperate. Even after the canoe was 
overturned the Indians fought in the water, "discharg- 
ing their arrows while swimming, as dexterously as 
though they had been upon firm land ; and the women 
fought as fiercely as the men." 

"The hair of these savages was long and coarse; 
their eyes were encircled with paint, so as to give 
them a hideous expression ; and bands of cotton were 
bound firmly above and below the muscular parts of 
the arms and legs, so as to cause them to swell to a 
disproportioned size." Humboldt makes mention of 
this custom, in vogue among the Caribs of South 
America, in the early part of the present century. 

" The warlike and unyielding character of these 
people, so different from that of the pusillanimous 
nations around them, and the wide scope of their en- 
terprises and wanderings, like those of the nomad 
tribes of the Old World, entitle them to distinguished 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 77 

attention. They were trained to war from their in- 
fancy. As soon as they could walk, their intrepid 
mothers put in their hands the bow and arrow, and 
prepared them to take an early part in the hardy 
enterprises of their fathers. Their distant roamings 
by sea made them observant and intelligent. The 
natives of the other islands only knew how to divide 
time by day and night, by the sun and moon ; whereas 
these had acquired some knowledge of the stars, by 
.which to calculate the times and seasons." 

This is the account, drawn mainly from Irving, of 
the discovery and condition of the first cannibals ever 
beheld by white men. This second voyage of Colum- 
bus commenced under flattering auspices : to find at 
the outset a new people, a new fruit; to add to the 
language at least two new words — Carib and Can- 
nibal, — this were enough to satisfy any explorer. 

But Columbus was in search of gold. He could not 
brook delay in a country where the precious metal did 
not exist ; and though the forests were filled with 
countless trees possessing spicy gums and rare virtues, 
he could not stop to put them to the test. He sailed 
away north after capturing some women and children. 

The mind of the great admiral was keenly alive to 
any opportunity for serving his sovereigns and himself. 
Finding no gold, he looked about for some means of 
making it. He sent the captive Caribs home to Spain 
to be sold as slaves. And this is how the great and 
good Columbus proposed to reimburse his sovereigns 
for their outlay, and to furnish the colony with live- 
stock. " In this way the peaceful islanders would be 
freed from warlike and inhuman neighbors ; the royal 
revenue would be greatly enriched, and a vast number 



78 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

of souls would be snatched from perdition, and carried, 
as it were, by main force to heaven." 

Though the gentle and humane Isabella would not 
listen to this monstrous scheme, there is little likeli- 
hood that it would have succeeded with the Caribs ; 
for those old conquistador es, though valiant inquisi- 
tors, rarely measured swords with these antagonists 
who loved to fight. Although, a matter of history, 
the followers of Columbus murdered more than a mil- 
lion of the peaceful inhabitants of the larger islands — 
Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Porto Rico — -who were dis- 
covered in a state of happiness and innocence, they 
always evaded encounters with the "Pagan Cannibals." 
Thus to the prowess of their ancestors are the Caribs 
of the present day indebted for their existence, when 
not a vestige remains of the more numerous but peace- 
ful tribes north of them. 

But I did not intend, in digressing, to follow the 
voyages of Columbus ; to describe how he converted 
these fair islands, teeming with happy life, into hells 
Of misery, and left behind him and his monsters a trail 
of blood and fire. It was merely to begin at the be- 
ginning, to bring before you the Carib as he was when 
found, nearly four centuries ago, and to show, by con- 
trast with his present life, how he has been almost 
civilized out of existence. 

I had been a month in the interior of Dominica, 
living in the woods, hunting new birds, and enjoying 
the novel experiences of camp life in tropical moun- 
tains. From time to time came reports from the Carib 
country, that only strengthened the determination I had 
formed of penetrating to their stronghold. That they 
lived secluded from the world, held no intercourse 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 79 

with other people ; naked they wandered at will in the 
forest ; without houses, they slept on the ground on 
beds of leaves. Sending my collections of birds to 
the coast and ordering thence a fresh supply of provis- 
ions and ammunition, I left the Caribbean side of the 
island and marched over the mountains toward the 
Atlantic, with three stout girls and a man laden with 
my effects. The journey was to occupy two days, as 
the rivers were swollen. They had " come down," 
in the language of the country ; but when a river is 
"down" in the West Indies it is up — having rushed 
down from the mountains, swollen by some heavy 
rain, and flooded the lowlands. 

The Carib reservation in Dominica extends from 
Mahoe River to Q-ayfish River, a distance of about 
three miles along the Atlantic coast, and away back 
into the mountains as far as they please to cultivate. 
Though each family has a little garden adjacent 
to the dwelling, any individual can select an un- 
occupied piece of ground on the neighboring hills, 
or mountain sides, for cultivation. All their provision 
grounds (as are called the mountain gardens where 
the staple fruits and vegetables* are grown) are at a 
distance from the house, some even two miles away, 
solitary openings made in the depths of the high 
woods. As the soil in general is very thin, and does 
not support a crop for many successive years, these 
gardens are being constantly made afresh. 

As I rode along, every house seemed deserted ; no 
face appeared, and I met no one save the ancient 

* These are, the Yam {Diosco?-ea saliva and D. alata) ; the 
Sweet Potato {Batatas edulis); the Cassava (Jatropha manihot 
and J. janipha) ; Banana {Musa paradisiaca) ; Plantain {Musa 
sapienttun), and Tannier (Caladium sagitt<zfohum). 



80 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

king, old George, who was named for King George 
the Third, tottering toward the plantations, to spend 
for rum some money he had earned. There were two 
sovereigns, in fact, for the Carib chief held in his 
hand a golden one, of English coinage. The houses 
are low and thatched deeply with calumet grass tied 
in bundles and lashed tightly upon frame-works of 
poles. Some of them were open at the sides, though 
a few were built up at sides and ends, with wooden 
doors and shutters. Near each hut is the cook-house, 
a roof of thatch supported upon four poles ; or again, 
merely a "lean-to," the roof slanting up from the 
ground with just room enough for the cook to squat 
under while attending the fire. 

Beneath this roof, on a few stones which support 
the cooking-utensils, is usually an old iron pot, which 
serves a variety of uses. Twice a day it is brought 
into requisition for the household ; at other times it is 
open to the inspection of hogs and strangers. The 
rudest cabins, but at the same time the most pictu- 
resque, were those composed wholly of grass and reeds 
with wattled sides, looking like the huge stacks of 
grass one sees on marshes and meadows in America. 
Even the doors of these huts were made of canes and 
flags, wattled together with reeds, while the windows 
were merely loop-holes. The roads, though narrow 
bridle-paths, are good, as the Caribs seem to take a 
pride in keeping them in order. Either through fear 
or pride they obey all the laws imposed upon them by 
the crown and colony, and always perform their quota 
of 'road labor without a murmur. 

The path turned suddenly, and at the base of the 
hill we came abruptly upon the Riviere Saint Marie, 



AMONG THE CARIES. 




An Indian Kitchen. 



where, sporting in the water, were several naked 
children, and a girl and woman washing clothes. Of 
course, there was a general stampede as I crossed the 
river; and one could not have told, five minutes later, 
but for the garments drying on the rocks, that there 
had been a Carib near. I rode up a gentle eminence, 
and was introduced to the house in which I was to 
reside for a short time. But one family lived near, 
an old Carib woman with five children. 

The first object conveying a hint of the proximity of 
Salibia, the Carib village, is a cross — indicating the 
religion of the people and the site of a cemetery. It 
stands up lone and majestic, a background of hills 
giving it prominence, its arms stretched out gaunt 



82 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

and bare, to which the continual trade-winds have 
given a color, gray and weather-beaten. Palm and 
plantain crop out on the hillsides beyond, and the 
former thrusts its head up from the river ravines be- 
low. Behind it, hid by the swell of the knoll, are the 
graves — not many, yet not few, for so small a settle- 
ment — simply raised hillocks of earth ; and some 
have upon them a few flowers, which seem to be 
occasionally renewed. Upon the graves, all the trees 
have fallen prostrate, or have been felled, to cover 
them ; with limbs stretched at the foot of the cross. 
I have never been in a cemetery that so appealed to 
my feelings as this. All is still, and solitude reigns. 

From the slight depression of the surface here, 
nothing is seen evincing human occupancy of the 
valley, until the foot of the cross is reached. Many 
an evening, during my six weeks' stay in that lonely 
valley, have I climbed to the base of the cross and sat 
: enjoying the silence and solitude. From that 
point one overlooks the lower half of the valley, which 
is shut in on three sides by high hills covered with 
forest, abandoned fields, and provision grounds, alter- 
nating. Beneath, the most prominent object is a rude 
chapel, a loosely-built structure, to which comes 
monthly a lusty priest, to care for the souls and the 
silver of the people. Lower still, are the four or five 
thatched huts comprising the village of Salibia; but 
one of these is occupied, and the cocoa palms rustle 
their leaves in a desolate place ; and their rustling, 
with the eternal roar of the ocean, is the only sound 
heard from morning to night. 

There are sea-grapes there in perfumed bloom, 
among the satin leaves of which dart humming-birds, 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 83 

sugar-birds, and drowsy bees. This is the valley in 
which I became acquainted with the "Cannibal 
Caribs " of Columbus, this secluded spot on the At- 
lantic coast of Dominica, in the month of April, 1877. 

As servant and guide I was fortunate in securing a 
half Carib, named Meyong. At least, Meyong was 
the nearest English equivalent for his barbarous French 
name. He was, as I have said, but half a Carib ; the 
other half was black ; colors so deftly mingled, so 
skillfully laid on, that they resulted in a rich olive 
brown — quite a fashionable shade. Meyong hunted 
with me, found for me people to do my heavy work, 
ate my food and drank my rum, and slept. He did 
everything but work ; and yet he was the most faith- 
ful, trustworthy servant I ever had, and anything I 
wanted he would get, or, if too much trouble for him, 
induce some one to get for me. He studied my wants 
so closely that I had ever a retinue of willing young- 
sters at beck and call, all conjured up by Meyong 
to relieve his labors. His faithfulness and literal 
obedience to orders are well illustrated by the manner 
in which he procured for me a cook. 

We passed several weeks tranquilly together. My 
hammock swung in the breeze at night, and I was 
careful not to hunt in the breathless heat of noon. 
But there comes an end, sooner or later, to human 
enjoyment. Our cook, Meyong's sister, concluded, 
without warning, to visit a friend on the far side of 
the mountain ; and one day, when my guide and my- 
self returned hot and weary from the hunt, the sun at 
meridian and the parched earth radiating heat like a 
furnace, there was no breakfast, and po one to get it, 
either. 



84 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

The gentleness of that animal, man, when, upon 
returning to his domicil, he finds a meal unprepared, 
is proverbial. He has been known to endure without 
a murmur, for at least three minutes, by the aid of the 
morning paper; but I had no paper — had not seen 
one in two months' time — and imagine, if possible, 
the totality of patience necessary to endure the prepa- 
ration of a breakfast, v while, even at the time your ap- 
petite is raging, and hunger gnawing at your vitals, 
the potatoes and plantains are slumbering on the hill- 
side, and the fish still disporting themselves in their 
watery element. It is not at all wonderful if I said to 
Meyong, in my placid intervals, that we must have 
another cook at once, even if we had to send to town 
for one. He acquiesced in this decision, but said 
nothing more, for he was as sparing of speech as of 
muscle, and soon afterward disappeared. 

Thinking he had gone in pursuit of a dove, whose 
mournful note I had heard above me, I retired to my 
cabin, after a frugal lunch, to sleep. Later in the 
afternoon, even after I had prepared all my speci- 
mens of the morning, and the shadows of the hills 
were drawing themselves across the valley, he came 
not. The sun went down, leaving the valley cool and 
delightful, and darkness drew swiftly near. The 
stars came out, and all about my cabin was silent as 
the grave, and dark. My boy had not returned ; 
I sat in my doorway till late, it must have been nine 
o'clock, and was about retiring, when my attention 
was arrested by a noise. It grew louder, and then I 
saw a light gleam and disappear. I watched for it till 
again it shone out, at the top of a rising knoll, much 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 85 

nearer, and I could distinguish two torches, held aloft 
bv unsteady hands, approaching through the forest. 

What did it mean? 

The noise increased, and when the lights flashed 
nearer I saw there were three persons : two holding 
the torches, which sent up broad flame and thick 
smoke, supporting between them another who ap- 
peared unable to walk unaided. They were shouting 
some bacchanalian song, and their unsteady move- 
ments convinced me that they were intoxicated. In a 
few minutes they would be at my door, as they were 
already at the river, and then there might be trouble ; 
for, though quiet enough when sober, the Carib will 
sometimes quarrel when drunk. 

Acting upon the resolution of the instant, I barri- 
caded door and window, slipped a couple of cartridges 
into my gun, and retired to my hammock. By this 
time they were upon me, pounding heavily at my 
door, and shouting, in unintelligible French, threats, 
entreaties, imprecations. But I kept silence, which 
only exasperated them the more, and at last I heard 
one of them say, " I will see if he is there ; " and then, 
later, when I thought they had gone, my attention 
was drawn, by a slight rustling, to a crack in the 
walls, and I saw sailing into the room one after an- 
other, tiny sparks of fire, glowing with a greenish 
phosphorescent light. They did not drop inert, these 
sparks, nor did they set lire to my thatch, for they 
were sparks of the animal kingdom, elaters, fire- 
flies, two of which will give out sufficient light to 
read by. 

Would anv one but an Indian, a child of the forest, 
have thought of this original way of lighting an apart- 
ment? 




86 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

These little gleaming messengers increased in num- 
ber, and the darkness was crossed and re-crossed by 
fiery trails of light ; and still the busy fingers of my 
assailants thrust them in more and more. At last it 
became quite light, and by an inadvertent movement 
I exposed myself. With a shout, they proclaimed the 

success of their de- 
vice, and demanded 
I should let them 
in. But this I would 
not do, and they 
later subsided, after 
howling themselves 
hoarse. Before the 
termination of the 
entertainment I had 
fallen asleep, and did 
not awake until early 
the next morning. 

Just beforethe river, 
which ran near my 
hut, trickles through 
the huge rocks to the 
ocean, it leaves sev- 
eral small pools, hol- 
lowed from the solid rock by the waves. The sun 
rises so quickly in that latitude, coming up hot and 
glaring from the waves, that a bath, to be refresh- 
ing, must be taken at dawn. The morning was cool 
and cloudy ; a few birds were chirping as I stepped 
from my doorway. I drew back suddenly, saluted 
by a blast from what I thought must be an asthmatic 
fish-horn. Peering cautiously out, 1 ascertained, by 





AMONG THE CARIBS. 87 

the rapidly increasing light, that the noise had a 
harmless source, though I was correct in my con- 
jecture that it proceeded from a horn, for it came from 
my Indian friends of the preceding night, who had 
indeed taken a horn too much. Tracing this mighty 
snore to its source, I saw that it was produced try the 
combined efforts of three individuals, who lay stretched 
upon the grass beneath the palms. There was my 
boy, and another Indian, and between them, secured 
by ropes of vines, a girl of about eighteen. 

As I was curiously regarding this group, Meyong 
awoke, and eying me with a look of triumph, ex- 
claimed : 

"Ah, monsieur, you no savez ; look, ze cook ! " 

It was too true ; the lawless savage had made un- 
successful attempts to hire a cook the previous after- 
noon, and late, meeting this girl in the forest, had 
captured her with the aid of his friend. And I, think- 
ing these zealous friends had approached my hut with 
dire intent, had locked them out and gone supperless 
to bed. 

Among men and women, labor is equally divided. 
In the house, the woman is supposed to do all the 
work, but in the gardens and in the woods they work 
together. She prepares all the food and makes the 
fires ; and, as there seems to exist a perfect under- 
standing on this point, it is not so fruitful a source of 
discontent as in other and less-favored climes. 

The women are generally well treated and loved. 
An old writer savs, the Caribs were noted for their in- 
difference to their women, while the tribes of neigh- 
boring islands were excessively fond of their wives. 
Those other tribes are now extinct ; but the Carib 



88 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

character must have most wonderfully changed, for 
they now treat their wives well, even love them. For 
certain misdemeanors they claim the privilege, and 
exercise it, too, of beating them soundly. If a woman 
quarrel with another, of whom she is jealous with 
regard to her husband's affections, she is generally 
treated by her lord to an interview with the stick. 
But as a community, they dwell together in amity, 
loving one another, and taking affectionate interest 
in their children. 

One day, upon the solicitations of an Indian, I went 
to his hut to see a native dance. This man was 
very drunk ; as he approached his hut he darted in 
and called for his wife. What was my astonishment 
to see him, instead of pounding her, throw his arm 
around her neck and kiss her. 

I had been among them two weeks before I knew 
there were Indians in the woods about me, other than 
those living along and near the road. But one after- 
noon, in a hunt among the hills, I discovered four 
huts, the inmates of which, unless suddenly surprised, 
hid themselves at my approach. They were dressed 
very meagerly : a shirt for the men, and for the women 
a torn skirt. In the woods and in the provision- 
grounds, I met children, from eight to thirteen years 
old, entirely naked. These people never appear to 
the white inhabitants ; they make a few baskets which 
their neighbors dispose of for them, but they never 
leave the woods, not having overcome their original 
savagery. 

Basket-making is the only art they have preserved 
from the teachings of their ancestors ; but in this they 
indeed excel. Their baskets have such a reputa- 



AMONG THE CARIBS. 89 

tion throughout all the islands that they command 
large prices, and were it not for their innate laziness, 
and the scarcity of the peculiar shrub of which the 
baskets are composed, these people might attain to a 
degree of affluence. These "panniers," or baskets, 
are made of all sizes, some large as a common trunk. 
The)' - are made, sometimes, of a reed called roseau, 
but the best are made from a plant called the mahoe, 
which is now so scarce that the basket-makers have 
to take long journeys into the forests to obtain it. 

By burying it in the ground, and using for some the 
juices of certain plants, they give to the plaits a variety 
of colors. There are two thicknesses, and between 
them layers of the wild plantain, which make them per- 
fectly water-tight. I have one which was in use nearly 
a year, being constantly carried on the heads of my 
attendants; and even yet it will, I think, hold water. 
All the country people desire to possess a pannier, or 
Carib basket, which serves them as a light and port- 
able trunk. 



90 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOCIAL LIFE, APPEARANCE, AND LANGUAGE OF 
THE CARIBS. 

HAPPY CHILDREN. — CLEANLINESS. — PRIMITIVE INNOCENCE. — 
A MODEST MAIDEN. — DRESS. — FACE AND FIGURE. — FLAT- 
TENING THE FOREHEAD. — UGLY MEN AND WOMEN. — CARIB 
HOSPITALITY. — THE BASKET- WEAVER. — TROPIC NOONTIDE. — 
RELIGION.— THE DYING WOMAN. — A LOST SKELETON. — BURIAL 
OF THE DEAD. — THE WAKE. — ST. VINCENT CARIBS. — TWO DIA- 
LECTS. — THE AROWAKS. — AN AGREEABLE TONGUE. — VOCAB- 
ULARY. — CALIBAN A CARIB, AND CRUSOE'S MAN FRIDAY. — 

CRUSOE'S ISLAND BLACK CARIBS. — WEAPONS AND UTENSILS 

OF STONE. — "THUNDERBOLTS." — CARIB SCULPTURE. — A SAC- 
RIFICIAL STONE. — WHENCE CAME THEY? — THEIR NORTHERN 
LIMIT. — A SOUTHERN ORIGIN. — THEIR LOST ARTS. — A DYING 
PEOPLE. 

THE Carib children should be the happiest on 
earth. Unencumbered by clothing, they wan- 
der over the hills and along the shore as they feel 
disposed. The rocky rivers give them delightful re- 
treats from the sun, where they paddle in the pools, 
hunt for crayfish, and sleep upon the broad bosoms 
of the rocks. Either from habits of cleanliness or 
love of the water, every member of a household takes 
a daily bath in the river. They are consequently 
always clean, and, though ragged, are entirely free 
from those odors which make the sable brother so 
offensive. If their garments get soiled, they soon re- 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 91 

move them, even if they have to wash them while 
themselves naked, and wait in the shade while they 
dry in the sun. In washing they use their hands in 
scrubbing the clothes, and do not belabor them with 
clubs, as in the more civilized districts, and in Mar- 
tinique, where the sound of the washing is loud in 
the land. 

The prettiest picture of Indian life I have seen was 
during a hunt in a secluded nook among the hills 
behind the settlement of Salibia. The Riviere Col- 
lette tumbles over and among great rocks, through 
narrow chasms shaded by tree-ferns and mountain 
palms. Many water plants grow in clumps, and little 
pools are formed among the rocks. As I was leap- 
ing the stones, in crossing, I heard a low murmur of 
song, and looking up, saw a young girl of sixteen 
sitting on a large bowlder, mending a handkerchief. 
Around her, drying in the sun, were her clothes, 
which she had washed — probably all she possessed. 
She was so absorbed in her work, so carelessly happy 
in the freedom of this wild seclusion, that I had nearly 
crossed before she observed me, when, with maid- 
enly modesty, she covered her face with the handker- 
chief. 

The majority of the people go about lamentably 
ragged. There are few shoes and stockings in the 
community, and those who have them only- put them 
on upon great occasions, when they appear ill at ease, 
cramped and uncomfortable. So it is with regard 
to dress ; while, with a dress well made and fitting 
nicely, the women consider themselves magnificently 
arrayed, to me they appeared at a great disadvantage. 
In short frock descending to the knees, gathered about 



0,2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the hips with a twist of lialine, or forest vine, their 
hair contained in a simple kerchief, or, better, flowing 
in luxuriant tresses down their backs, as they appear 
when going to labor in the forest, they are in perfect 
character. 

This brings me to speak of the appearance of the 
Caribs, of their form and color, which make them 
different from people of other nationalities. Through 
the changes of climate and residence, and the greater 
changes wrought by intermarriage with other tribes 
and with the negroes, the true Carib type is likely 
soon to be lost. It is, however, lighter in complexion 
than that of the North American Indian, — so light, 
that, from their peculiar cast of golden-brown, they 
have acquired the name of Yellow Indians. From 
my photographs it will be seen that the type is more 
of the Mongol than of any other. A peculiar instance 
came under my observation in one hamlet, where a 
Chinaman — pure Mongolian — had married a yellow 
Carib. Their progeny, a numerous family of chil- 
dren, could not be distinguished from the Indian chil- 
dren around them. One beautiful feature about them 
is their hair, which is abundant, long, and purple- 
black ; it is finer than that of our Indians, though not 
so fine as that of the Caucasian type.* 

Though early losing the grace and symmetry of 
form of childhood, through labor in the fields, ex- 
posure to the sun, and a natural tendency to corpu- 

* " That cacique that was a stranger had his wife staying at the 
port where we ankored, and in all my life I have seldom seene a 
better favored woman. She was of good stature, with blacke eies, 
fat of body, of an excellent countenance, her haire almost as long 
as hirselfe, tied up againe in pretie knots." — Sir W. Raleigh's 
Discovery of Gttiana. 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 93 

lency, both men and women preserve the shapeliest 
of limbs. The arms of the men are extremely mus- 
cular, and their breasts huge knots of muscle. The 
head is well shaped and gracefully poised. This, as 
well as the straightness of the back, and backward 
throw of the broad shoulders, may be owing to the 
universal practice of carrying every kind of load upon 
the head. The custom of flattening the forehead by 
compression, which was universal until the commence- 
ment of the present century, is not now practiced. 

Let me subjoin a description of a boy and girl, 
made as they stood before me, in the primitive garb 
of innocence and virtue, two years ago. The boy, 
aged eleven or twelve, had a face round, with chin 
of good shape, and small; nose rather flat; mouth 
small ; ears small ; eyes almond-shaped, with black 
silken fringe ; the forehead broad and prominent ; hair 
purple-black, abundant, cut short above the eyes and 
flowing behind ; the shoulders straight — a plumb- 
line dropped from the junction of cervical and dorsal 
vertebras would touch the heels ; back hollowed ; ab- 
domen full ; legs straight ; hips not large but power- 
ful ; breasts well rounded. The girl was an exact 
picture of the boy in the features above described ; 
the mouth was daintily cut, with thin lips ; and grace 
and lithesome freedom were in every turn and mo- 
tion. 

It almost gave pain to think that these sprightly 
little beauties would develop into coarse, full-bodied 
men and women, like those about them. But it un- 
doubtedly would be so ; and this little boy, though 
retaining longer the shapely limbs which would de- 
velop into muscular and brawny members, would 



94 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 





eventually become as wrinkled and flabby as the 
ugliest man in the village ; and the careless little 
maiden, not many years later, almost as soon as her 
shape and limbs were rounded and perfected, would 
begin to acquire that grossness that mars maidenly 

beauty, and, if mar- 
ried at eighteen, at 
twenty-five or thirty 
she would be old, 
though vigorous, 
and resemble those 
middle-aged females 
about her. 

A writer thus de- 
scribes the Domin- 
ica Caribs in 1795 : 
" They are of clear 
copper color, and 
have sleek, black 
hair ; their persons 
are stout and well 
made, but they dis- 
figure their faces by 
flattening their fore- 
heads in infancy. 



Is 






■ *§= ip 


t ■ '' 






TffjSiliSiiflii 


i 1 






isBBH 








gp^g^-^fe~jgjj» 


. 


■■■1 


* ■ m j 













Ancient Caribs. 



They live chiefly by fishing in the rivers and the sea, 
or by fowling in the woods, in both which pursuits 
they use their arrows with wonderful dexterity. It is 
said they will kill the smallest bird with an arrow at 
a great distance, or transfix a fish at a considerable 
depth, in the sea. They display also very great in- 
genuity in making curious-wrought panniers, or bas- 
kets, of silk-grass or the leaves and bark of trees." 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 95 

None of the old writers mention the hospitality of 
the Carib, which at the present day is a virtue he 
possesses in perfection. I recall one of the many ex- 
cursions made through the environs of the hamlet into 
the forest in my search for birds. The day was hot, 
but a cool breeze from the ocean, which always blows 
from ten in the morning till six in the evening, tem- 
pered the heat. Bordering the forest was a little 
open space, in the center of which, on a spur of the 
hills overlooking the sea, was a small thatched hut, 
inhabited by one of the few families of Caribs who 
have remained uncontaminated by negro blood. As 
I emerged from the forest I was met by a robust dam- 
sel with laughing eyes, who brought for me a wooden 
bench and placed it beneath the grateful shade of a 
mango. Then appeared her father, who welcomed 
me to his habitation, and then disappeared. A little 
later, when he re-appeared, he was driving before 
him a flock of fowls, and singling out the largest and 
plumpest, he requested me to shoot it. Thinking I 
had not understood him, I hesitated, but, at a repe- 
tition of the request, fired and tumbled the fowl in the 
dust. There was an instant scattering of the others, 
but the old man picked up the slain one and marched 
off with it to his wife. Then he knocked. down a few 
cocoa-nuts, and, clipping off the end of one, brought 
it to me, with its ivory chamber full of cool and re- 
freshing water, apologizing that he could offer me no 
rum or gin, which it is customary to mix with it. 

In an hour or so I was invited to the hut, where, 
on a clean table, was spread a substantial meal of 
bread-fruit and yam, with the chicken I had so re- 
cently shot. This last was a luxury the Indian sel- 



96 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

dom treated himself to ; and when I reflected to what 
extent my host had deprived himself, and upon the 
recent, the very recent, demise of the chicken, I could 
scarcely eat. My friends refused to sit at table with 
me, but attended upon my wants, bringing me fresh 
cocoanut-water, and mangos and guavas for dessert. 
To be sure, there was neither fork nor table-knife ; but 
one living in the woods is never without his pocket- 
knife, and a fork can be quickly whittled from a palm- 
rib. After the repast I retired to the shade of the 
mango ; the father gathered about him his materials 
for making baskets, and the daughter wove for me 
a curious cone of basket-work, used by the children 
in their games, which, being slipped over the finger, 
cannot be removed so long as it is tightly drawn. 

The sun at noon is very powerful in that climate, 
and one quickly feels its somnolent influences. The 
people are up early, and work a little in the morning, 
but in the heat of the day little is done. No traveler 
passes, unless some one on a long journey ; and no one 
works except the basket-maker, who can do so under 
the broad-spreading shade of a mango or tamarind. 
Even he, as noon draws nigh and breakfast is dis- 
posed of, stretches himself upon a board and dozes 
for an hour or two. Everything is hushed in uni- 
versal calm, and even the insects and birds feel the 
influence of the solar rays and are silent, drowsy, 
and indulging in mid-day siestas. Dolce far nicnte 
is the life these people lead ; the sweet-do-nothing 
more than is absolutely necessary. 

Hospitality such as I have mentioned is not ex- 
ceptional. If an Indian takes a liking to you, hence- 
forward you are his comjyere ; all he has is yours — 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 97 

and what you possess, also, is reckoned as his, if he 
want it. When he offers to you his house and all in 
it, it is no idle custom without meaning, for even 
his household furniture, if there be any, is at your 
disposal. 

The ancient Caribs, if we may credit the statements 
of early writers, believed in some sort of a future 
state, and also that their departed friends were secret 
witnesses of their conduct. "The brave had the 
enjoyment of supreme felicity with their wives and 
captives ; the cowardly were doomed to everlasting 
banishment beyond the mountains. This was their 
next world. They dimly recognized a Divinity, a 
great creator of all things, and vaguely offered their 
homage and sacrifice." 

It is supposed that each person had his tutelar deity ; 
it may have been a tree or a rock. The northern 
tribes, the Arowaks, had their zemes, or household 
gods, when discovered by the Spaniards. "The 
Caribs erected a rustic altar of banana leaves and 
rushes, whereon they placed the earliest of their 
fruits and choicest of their viands, as peace-offerings 
to incensed omnipotence. They could not be in- 
sensible to the existence of a great ruler, when the 
convulsions of nature were so great as they witnessed 
in the earthquake and hurricane." 

In religion, at the present time, the Caribs of Do- 
minica are Roman Catholic, and are very observant of 
the rites of the church. Upon the occasion of the 
priest's monthly visit, nearly all flock to hear him, 
even it they do not obey his injunctions ; and the sick 
are brought, and the dying, to obtain the sacrament. 
At the close of service, one Sabbath, word was 

n 



98 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

brought the priest that Madame Jim, a middle-aged 
woman, was dying, with a request that he would 
hasten to administer the last rites of the church. But 
the priest was anxious to be away ; his house was a 
dozen miles distant, and half-way there, at the house 
of a friend, a dinner was awaiting him. With im- 
patience, then, he commanded that she be brought to 
the chapel ; and the dying woman was placed in a 
hammock suspended between poles, and carried to 
the priest, over a mile of rough, steep road, patiently 
suffering, anxious only to receive extreme unction be- 
fore she passed away. 

The same Sabbath there was buried at the foot of 
the cross the oldest inhabitant of the nation, a very 
old Carib woman, whose death I lamented, as I was 
awaiting her recovery to secure from her a vocabulary 
of Carib words. My grief was only alleviated by the 
thought that an opportunity might occur for exhuming 
her skeleton, which would prove a valuable acquisi- 
tion to the Smithsonian Museum. 

Formerly, the Caribs buried their dead in a sitting 
posture, in order (as an old Indian told me) that they 
might be all ready to jump, when the Spirit came for 
them ; and facing the sunrise, to see the light of 
morning. When the master of a house died, they 
buried him in the center of his hut, with his knees 
bent to his chin. They then left the hut and built 
another, some distance from it. 

Eight days after the death of Madame Jim, the 
neighbors had a sort of wake, or " praise " ; until mid- 
night, the girls sang hymns. After twelve o'clock, 
all the younger people formed themselves in groups 
and played games until morning, while the wicked 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 99 

Meyong, and a few more of the ungodly — who had 
amused themselves by tickling the ears of the choris- 
ters with straws and palm-leaves, in vain attempt to 
upset their gravity — improved the hours so assiduous- 
ly in imbibing the new rum furnished by the husband 
of the departed, that the morning light saw them 
thoroughly fuddled. The whole settlement attended, 
old men and women and children, even to babes at 
the breast. The expense to the bereaved husband 
must have been great ; and his reflection upon this 
fact, coupled with the equally saddening one that the 
wife of his bosom would never again labor for him 
in the garden, or relieve him of the burden of " 
domestic duties, must have caused him to regret her 
departure. 

Eight months later, I was in. the island of Saint 
Vincent, in latitude thirteen, north, two degrees and 
a half south of Dominica. Here reside (with those of 
the latter island) the only remaining Caribs north of 
South America. While those of Dominica speak a 
perverted French, these speak an equally corrupt 
English. The former are Roman Catholic in their 
faith ; the latter, Church of England. Two weeks I 
lived with these Caribs, in a little wattled hut thatched 
with leaves, which was given up to .me by a young 
colored man who had recently married a Carib wife. 

In St. Vincent, the Caribs made their last stand 
against the English, in the latter part of the last 
century, and there are more abundant evidences of 
ancient occupation, and the traditions are better pre- 
served than in Dominica. It was for the purpose of 
securing a vocabulary of their ancient language, to 
compare with one I had formed in Dominica, and to 



IOO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ascertain if any difference existed between the Indians 
of the two islands, that I visited them. 

In Dominica there are but twenty families of pure 
Caribs ; in St. Vincent less than six ; and but a few, 
of the older men and women, can speak the original 
language. In a few years — another generation — 
the Carib tongue, as spoken by these insular people, 
will be a thing of the past, of which there exists but 
an imperfect record, speaking which there will be no 
person living. 

The source of my information in Dominica was a 
woman, who had, I have reason to believe, purer 
speech than my informant in St. Vincent, who was a 
man. Humboldt observes, quoting Cicero : " The 
old forms of language are better preserved by women, 
because, by their position in society, they are less ex- 
posed to those vicissitudes of life, change of place and 
occupation, which tend to corrupt the primitive purity 
of language among men." 

I found, however, a greater difference than the 
mere supposition of difference of sex, or the interval 
of a hundred and fifty miles between their respective 
habitations, would create. I found, in fact, that this 
people spoke two dialects, in confirmation of which 
my vocabulary, from which I can quote but briefly, 
will testify. For certain things they had two words 
entirely different. In the construction of sentences, 
though there would be close analogy, there was a dif- 
ference in the opening or closing words that was at 
once noticeable. In the following, for instance, where 
the woman expresses a wish for a fish for dinner : 
K JVo6-?z, hd-ma-gah, oo-do." And the man : " U-i-di, 
hd-ma-ga, oo-do." Almost invariably, a word com- 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. IOI 

menced by the man with a B, by the woman was 
begun with an J\. 

Although I could surmise the cause of this discrep- 
ancy, which in some instances was even more marked, 
I could not be satisfied to trust to my own inexperi- 
enced reasoning, but turned to the greatest authority 
upon any such subject in his day — the immortal 
Humboldt. Some light was thus afforded, for he had 
noticed the same peculiarity. "The contrast between 
the dialects of the sexes is so great that to explain it 
satisfactorily, we must refer to another cause (than 
difference in sex), and this may perhaps be found in 
the barbarous custom practiced by the Caribs, of kill- 
ing their male prisoners, and carrying the wives of 
the vanquished into captivity. When the Caribs made 
an irruption into the West Indies, they arrived there 
as a band of warriors, not as colonists accompanied 
by their families. The language of the female sex 
was formed by degrees, as the conquerors contracted 
alliances with the foreign women ; it was composed 
of new elements, words distinct from the Carib words, 
which in the interior of the gynecaeums were trans- 
mitted from generation to generation, but on which 
the structure, the combinations, the grammatical 
forms of the language of the men, exercised an 
influence." 

Seeking farther, I found in an ancient volume, a 
French work published in 1658, conclusive evidence 
in place of what was with Humboldt mostly conjecture. 
It says : The Caribs have an original language 
peculiar to them alone, like any other nation, which 
they speak among themselves. The men have many 
peculiar expressions which the women understand very 



102 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

well, but never utter; and the women have likewise 
their own words and phrases which the men never use 
except in ridicule. The savages of Dominica relate 
that when they came to live in these islands (the 
Lesser Antilles) they found them in possession of a 
nation of Arowaks, whom they entirely destroyed, 
except the women, whom they married. Thus, the 
women having preserved their own language, taught 
it to their children. Having been practiced until the 
present time, this language remains different in a great 
many respects from that of the men. 

But the boys, after they attain the age of five or 
six, although they well understand the speech of 
their mothers and sisters, follow their fathers and 
elder brothers in the formation of their language. In 
proof of what they relate, they allege that there is 
some resemblance between the language of the female 
Caribs and that of the Arowaks of the main-land 
(South America). 

The Caribs had also a certain form of speech 
which they used among themselves in their councils 
of war, — a gibberish very difficult to understand, of 
which neither the women nor children were permitted 
to have any knowledge ; nor even the young men, until 
they had given some proof of their bravery, or of zeal 
in the common quarrels of their country against their 
enemies. It is owing to this fact that their designs 
were never prematurely disclosed, and their invasions 
of an enemy's territory always so unexpected. They 
have in their native tongue few terms of abuse, and 
about the most offensive is : " you are no good," or, 
"you are no livelier than a turtle." Again, they have 
no equivalent word for virtue, which even at the present 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. IO3 

day is rare indeed. In counting, they cannot ex- 
press themselves above twenty, and then only by 
means of the fingers and toes. Among the Sem- 
inoles of Florida I found a system of numeration 
perfect up to one thousand. Their pronunciation is 
soft and agreeable, and their language abounds in 
those figurative expressions which make the speech of 
our aboriginal tribes so interesting. 

Like the northern Indians, they use the expression 
moon for month : noo-no, moon, and kd-t?\ month, 
meaning the same. My wife is " my heart" ; a boy 
is a little man ; an idiot, a person without light, or 
unillumined ; the fingers are the little ones, or the 
babes, of the hands ; the rainbow is God's plume. To 
signify that a thing is lost, they say it is dead. Their 
first white visitors they styled "children of the sea," 
because they came to them in ships from over 
the sea. 

Though different writers have sought to prove by 
comparative vocabularies affinity between the Carib 
and the Jew and the Tartar, it has not been con- 
clusively proven that this people descended from 
either. There is, however, whatever the origin of 
the language, a striking significance in their desig- 
nating appellation — Carib, or Cannibal, which are 
epithets referring to valor and strength. 

We have seen that they received this name from 
Columbus, or his associates, who had heard it as 
applied to them by the inhabitants of Hispaniola, the 
year previous to the discovery of the Caribbees. 
Humboldt relates that the Caribs of South America 
called themselves Carina, Calina, Callinago, Caribi ; 
and that the name Carib is derived from Calina and 



IO4 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Carifoona. The word Carifoona was given me, 
both by the St. Vincent and Dominica Caribs, as the 
ancient name of the tribe ; so there can be no doubt 
of the origin of the latter term. 

In this connection, the author of "Myths of the 
New World " has propounded a curious and by no 
means improbable theory: "The mythical ancestor 
of the Caribs created his offspring by sowing the soil 
with stones, or with the fruit of the Mauritius palm, 
which sprouted forth into men and women ; while the 
Yurucares, much of whose mythology was perhaps 
borrowed from the Peruvians, clothed this crude tenet 
in a somewhat more poetic form, fabling that at the 
beginning the first men were pegged, Ariel-like, in 
the knotty entrails of an enormous bole, until the god 
Tiri — a second Prospero — released them by cleaving 

it in twain It is still a mooted point whence 

Shakespeare drew the plot of 'The Tempest.' The 
coincidence mentioned in the text between some parts 
of it and South American mythology does not stand 
alone. Caliban, the savage and brutish native of the 
island, is undoubtedly the word Carib, often spelled 
Caribana and Calibani in older writers, and his 
'dam's god, Setebos,' was the supreme divinity of the 
Patagonians when first visited by Magellan." 

As another curious fact, which inseparably links 
the Carib with our best fiction, as well as with our 
early history, let me mention that Robinson Crusoe's 
"Man Friday" was a Carib; and the island of their 
adventures is not in the Pacific Ocean, but lies among 
the historic isles of the Caribbean Sea. It is, in fact, 
the island of Tobago, which I visited, and in which I 
had many and varied adventures. 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. IO5 

From the same old Carib who aided in enriching 
my vocabulary I obtained many quaint tales and tra- 
ditions, which, in another chapter, are related to show 
that the Caribs, though wanderers, robbers, and can- 
nibals, were not without their fireside stories and super- 
stitions. Like the African, like the North American 
Indian, the Carib is very superstitious ; the woods, 
shore, rocks, and trees are peopled with jumbz'es, or 
evil spirits, who can, if they please, work them harm ; 
the spirits of men and women who once lived among 
them, and who, they firmly believe, still inhabit this 
earth. Anything of odd shape or mysterious aspect 
is believed to be possessed of a jumbie. The owl, 
from its nocturnal habits and soft flight, its large, 
staring eyes and boding cry, is the chosen bird for 
the terrestrial abode of the spirits, and bears the appel- 
lation of "jumbie-bird " in every island. But a jumbie 
may appear in the shape of anything animate or in- 
animate, and it may happen that now and then an 
animal is wrongly accused of being possessed of a 
jumbie. 

To the ethnologist, the Caribs of St. Vincent pre- 
sent an attractive subject for study, for there is among 
them a people formed by the union of two distinct 
races, the American and the Ethiopian. They are 
called " Black Caribs," to distinguish them from the 
typical or "Yellow Caribs." Various reasons are as- 
signed for the cause of this mixture. One tradition is 
to the effect that the Caribs attacked and burned a 
Spanish ship, in the sixteenth century, and took its 
freight of slaves to live among them ; another version, 
that a slaver was wrecked near St. Vincent, and the 
Africans, escaping, joined the Caribs. The Yellow 



I06 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Caribs received them as friends, but eventually the 
negroes possessed themselves of the best lands and 
drove their benefactors to the most worthless. Having 
intermarried with the Yellow Caribs, they departed 
from the negro type in a few years, but sufficiently 
resembled the slaves, beginning to be introduced into 
the island by the French in 1720, as to cause them 
alarm, and they took to the woods and mountains, 
living there for quite another generation. They also 
adopted the Carib practice of flattening the foreheads 
of their children, so that succeeding generations dif- 
fered generally from their fathers. They now form a 
small community on the northwestern shore of St. 
Vincent, at a place called Morne Ronde. 

Throughout the island of St. Vincent I found traces 
of occupation by the ancient Caribs. These were in 
the shape of implements of war and utensils for do- 
mestic use, of the rudest description : hatchets, axes, 
battle-axes, gouges, chisels, and spear-heads, of stone, 
generally classed under the head of "celts." The 
negroes, ever superstitious, attribute to these stones, 
which they occasionally find in the fields, a celestial 
origin, declaring they are "thunderbolts," and that 
they come down from the sky during thunderstorms. 
This they prove to their entire satisfaction, by citing 
the fact that they are always more abundant after a 
rain. This is evident from the fact that rain washes 
away the earth from these ancient stones which have 
lain so long buried. 

The Caribs did not possess that advancement in 
civilized art that enabled them to produce such sculp- 
tured works of intricate and beautiful design, both in 
stone and wood, as the Spaniards found among the 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. 



I07 




The ^Sacrificial ^tone. 



inhabitants of Cuba and Haiti at the time of their dis- 
covery- They confined their efforts to the production 
of axes for hollowing out their canoes, and the manu- 
facture of implements of war. They made pottery, 
but I doubt if the cotton found in their huts by Colum- 
bus was of their own weaving. It is more probable 
that it was taken from the Arowaks of the greater 
islands. 

In the forests there are yet more striking evi- 
dences of aboriginal occupation, which would tell us 
that there once existed here a people different from 
those of the present day, were there no written or tra- 
ditional chronicles of their existence. In a valley of 
the Caribbean side of St. Vincent is a large rock cov- 



108 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ered with incised figures, which are undoubtedly of 
great antiquity, and the lines or grooves are so nearly 
obliterated that I will not hazard a guess as to their 
meaning. The central figure, however, a face en- 
closed in a triangle, seems to resemble rude aboriginal 
representations of the sun. It is conjectured that this 
was a sacrificial stone used by the Caribs, or their 
predecessors, the Arowaks ; and this statement would 
seem to be confirmed by the various channels leading 
from the attendant satellites to the central figure. The 
rock at present lies with its face slanting to the south- 
west, owing to the excavation of the earth beneath it 
by a small stream that runs near. A few miles below 
is another and smaller rock, having carved upon it 
a face surrounded by scroll-work. In the island of 
Guadeloupe is a large rock having upon it a figure 
of more intricate design ; and it is said that there are 
sculptured rocks in the island of St. John, one of the 
Virgin Islands. Owing to the rugged conformation 
of the islands chosen as their home, it is not possible 
to discover such evidences of their handiwork as in 
islands of more level surface. 

As the only remaining Indians between the con- 
tinent of South America and North America, be- 
tween Guiana and Florida, these Caribs possess an 
interest attaching to no other tribe living. Having 
visited the southernmost resident Indians in the United 
States, the Seminoles, offshoots from the Creeks, I 
was enabled to note more intelligently the differences 
between the two tribes ; and, aside from these and 
other reasons, I do not think the Caribs ever reached 
the continent of North America. This statement may 
be met with the counter one that the Seminoles, at 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. IO9 

the time of Carib supremacy in the Lesser Antilles, 
were residents of the country north of Florida, and 
that a different tribe, the Yemassees, inhabited the 
peninsula. 

Very naturally arises the question, whence came 
this people ? This must remain unanswered until 
our savants have determined the origin of the entire 
race of which these Indians are but a fragmentary 
portion. They may trace them to Jew or Tartar, to 
Malay or Phoenician, for their remote origin; but 
to the ethnologist who believes in an original Amer- 
ican civilization, that there was for ages an emigra- 
tion from South America northward, a little light may 
be afforded, by tracing the confines of the Carib. 

Considering the Esquimaux and the North Amer- 
ican Indians to be an " immigrant element" from Asia, 
we must look to the South for the origin of those other 
tribes more advanced than they in civilization. The 
Mound-builders of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, 
and the Cliff-dwellers of Colorado and Arizona, may 
be traced to Mexico as the country from which they 
sprung. The Aztecs, in the height of their power 
when discovered by the Spaniards, pointed to South 
America as the land from which they had invaded 
Mexico. Those learned men are not few who trace 
a connection from these peoples to that wonderful 
race that built the aqueducts of Peru and the roads 
of the Incas ; and who maintain further that Amer- 
ican civilization had its beginning in the elevated val- 
leys of Peru. 

These Caribs have no affinity with the people who 
built such wonderful cities and wrought such works 
of art as now lie scattered throughout the vast for- 



IIO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ests of Honduras and Central America ; but that they 
originated in the same continent of South America, 
there seems to be abundant evidence to prove. We 
can trace them from South America northward, kill- 
ing and devouring as they went. In the time of 
Columbus the people of Porto Rico were beginning to 
feel alarm from their incursions ; and the Spaniard 
may be consoled by the thought that if he had not 
murdered his millions, the Caribs would have event- 
ually depopulated these peaceful isles. We have seen 
that they had gained possession of all the Lesser An- 
tilles, coming up from the south, and probably were 
the same who possessed Jamaica from the west, coast- 
ing the shore northward from Darien and crossing the 
intervening sea. According to the Spanish writers 
of the sixteenth century, the Carib nation then ex- 
tended over eighteen or nineteen degrees of latitude, 
from the Virgin Islands, east of Porto Rico, to the 
mouths of the Amazon. It seems, then, but a ques- 
tion of time when they would have possessed every 
island in the Caribbean Sea. 

It is not my purpose to attempt to trace ancient 
American civilization, but merely to describe the 
northern limits of a people contemporary with the 
more civilized Indians. Their warlike character and 
unyielding nature is fully shown in their resistance to 
the yoke of slavery the Spaniards sought to put upon 
them, when they perished fighting rather than yield 
to the oppressors. 

How changed are the Caribs of the present day ! 
They have intermarried with the negroes to such an 
extent that their individuality is nearly lost. Their 
free mode of life, their long journeys by sea, their 



INDIAN HOME LIFE. Ill 

language even, are all things of the past. This rem- 
nant of a race, living so quietly in these islands, 
hemmed in between forest and ocean, peacefully cul- 
tivating their gardens and weaving baskets, quietly 
breathing away existence, are slowly but surely pass- 
ing on into the great gulf of forgetfulness. Already 
have they forgotten the deeds of their fathers, the 
dread prowess of their ancestors. The bow, the 
hatchet, the war-club, mighty weapons in willing 
hands, are lost. In all their settlements one cannot 
find a bow. Here, then, are people who have lost 
language, prestige, tradition, ambition; and it is a 
matter of comparatively little time ere they will have 
ceased to exist, and the forests and rivers, the cool, 
fern-shaded baths and tropic streams, no longer know 
their presence. 



112 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW I CAPTURED THE IMPERIAL PARROT. 

MEYONG. — MY HUT. — A MIXED-UP LANGUAGE. — DEPARTURE 
FOR THE FOREST. — PANNIER AND CUTLASS. — WOOD-PIGEONS. — 
THE STARTLED SAVAGES. — THE BATH. — A GLOOMY GORGE. — 
"PALMISTE MONTAGNE." — IN THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. — 
IMMENSE TREES. — PARASITES AND LIANES. — WOOD FOR CA- 
NOES AND GUM FOR INCENSE. — THE " BOIS DIABLE." — CON- 
STRUCTING THE CAMP. — PALM-SPATHES. — A BONNE BOUCHE, 
THE BEETLE GRUB. — NOCTURNAL NOISES. — COMICAL FROGS. — 
A BLACKSMITH IN A TREE. — THE FIRST SHOT. — THE HUMMING- 
BIRD'S NEST. — THE PARROT. — AN EXCITED GUIDE. — AN ACCI- 
DENT. — WILD HOGS. — THE "LITTLE DEVIL." 

" It was a land of rills 
And birds, and giant hills 
Rose westward ; eastward thundered the broad main." 

WALLS of reeds and roof of flags, a small hole 
looking eastward for a window, a larger one 
for a door. Leaning against the door-post is a Carib 
youth of eighteen, a gun resting in the hollow of his 
arm, a coarse cotton shirt and trowsers his habili- 
ments. Upright, in a hammock swung from two cor- 
ners of the hut, sits a sleepy American, thrusting his 
fingers through his long hair ; he is the only white 
man in that region. Reader, consider yourself intro- 
duced to my Indian guide, to my hut, and to myself. 
Meyong, my faithful servant and henchman, was 
christened Simeon in the little chapel over the hill ; 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 113 

but that was a name too long and savoring too much 
of English for these idle aborigines, and he was at 
once and forever rechristened. 

" Meyong ! " 

"Oui, monsieur ." 

You must pardon Meyong for frequent lapses into 
French, and for saying, "Out, monsieur," instead of 
" Yes, sir." The fact is, he has no language he can 
call his own. Though born a Carib, he never heard 
the Carib tongue, save from some very old woman or 
warriors. He was born under English rule, but never 
learned the English language. His parents spoke a 
degenerate French, but never owed allegiance to the 
French government. Meyong, then, speaks a patois, 
or dialect of his own, derived from the French, who 
once owned this island. His speech is abominable 
alike to cultivated Frenchman and Englishman. 

"Are you ready, Meyong?" 

w Ouz\ monsieur." 

" And Coryet ? " Coryet is his inseparable com- 
panion, with whom he roves sea and forest. 

" Coryet come long time, m'sieur ; he come ebry- 
ting." ' 

"Very well ; then bring me my coffee." 

While he was preparing my coffee I drew on my 
boots and hastened to the river to bathe. Darkness 
still covered everything, but the low, uneasy twitter- 
ing of birds gave token of the near approach of dawn. 
Crickets and locusts and all the nocturnal insects had 
hushed their chirpings, and all the valley was wrapped 
in the silence that preceded the break of day. 

Each of my young hunters had a large pannier 
strapped to his shoulders, like a knapsack made of 
8 



114 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

basket-work, filled with the essentials for our jour- 
ney. In them they had stored yams, tanniers, and 
" farine " of cassada, two bottles of native rum, my 
blanket and rubber poncho. One of them also carried 
a very heavy iron kettle, and the other a large cala- 
bash. Why Coryet chose thus to burden himself with 
the heavy kettle was explained by Meyong, who said 
that the kettle was the only article of kitchen use 
owned by his friend, and that he wished to display it 
as much as possible in going through the Indian gar- 
dens. When we reached the forests he would bury 
it and exhume it for exhibition on our return. Nearly 
everybody has some pet foible. Some display it in 
neck-ties, others in gloves ; but Coryet's took the 
shape of a pot of iron, black and battered. 

I forgot to add that each boy carried a great ma- 
chete, or cutlass, two feet and a half in length and 
two inches broad. I had grown so accustomed to 
seeing them with this weapon that I almost consid- 
ered it a part of themselves. Meyong also carried 
his gun. 

There were but three things he cared for in this 
world more than rum and sleep — -his cutlass, his gun, 
and his friend Coryet. Night and day they were 
together. He did, I think, entertain a high regard, 
approaching to love, for me, and he certainly feared 
the priest ; but the consideration of other things never 
disturbed his soul. 

We climbed the hill, and had reached the ridge 
forming the semicircle that hemmed in our valley be- 
fore the sun appeared. He came up from the ocean 
with a bounce and darted at us hot beams ; but we 
were then walking beneath tall trees, where he could 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. II5 

not enter, and we laughed at him. The trail we were 
following was one thread of a net-work of secret paths 
known only to the Indians, that had extent all over 
the island, traversing the forests only, from shore to 
shore. Our path was crossed by other trails, but my 
boys infallibly selected the right one, and we marched 
on swiftly. 

We were skirting the innermost of the Indian gar- 
dens, but soon left them and plunged into the woods, 
where the trail followed mainly the crest of a tortuous 
ridge. Ramicrs, or wood-pigeons, were cooing all 
around us, and Coryet and I went for one. He saw 
it first, and tumbled it from its high perch among the 
leaves to the ground. After an hour on the ridge we 
began to descend. The hill was very steep, and I 
had to cling to roots and rocks in going down. Soon 
we passed through a garden owned by Indian Jim, 
whose wife we saw "toted" in a hammock, the week 
before, dying, to the village to receive extreme unction 
from the priest on his visit. Poor woman ! her last 
task is finished on this earth, and never again will 
she look upon this solitary spot so often the scene 
of her daily toil. It was a dell most secluded and 
wild, and ground, rocks, and trees were covered with 
ferns. 

As we waded along knee-deep in ferns, a couple of 
ficrdrix, or mountain doves, got up ; one alighted 
in the loop of a swinging liane some forty yards away, 
and I dropped him into the ferns, stone-dead. Me- 
yong saw an agouti, but too quickly he penetrated the 
forest of ferns for us to catch him. Suddenly I heard 
the music of falling water — the most liquid melody 
in the world — and opportunely, too, for we were 



IT -6 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

tired and thirsty. Rapidly we descended, as fast as 
loosened rocks and earth furrowed by the rains would 
allow us, to a shady valley, where a foaming brook 
came down to join the large river that entered the sea 
two miles below. But another sound greeted our 
ears, other than that of water laughing over mossy 
stones ; it was the rumbling of loosened rocks and 
rolling of stones caused by the hand of man. We 
stopped to listen, and then Meyong went on ahead. 
He beckoned and I followed, to see, as I peered over 
the bank, a naked Indian running about in and out 
of the brook ; a magnificent man, with brawny shoul- 
ders and long black hair. Just ahead of him was a 
woman, his squaw, clad in a ragged skirt. Both 
were intently searching beneath the stones for some 
object, the man overturning large rocks in his way. 

What was this thing they seemed so eager to find ? 
It was not gold, for they do not know it in its virgin 
state. It was something more valuable to them, for 
present needs, a shell-fish for their breakfast and 
supper. The crayfish, the fresh- water lobster, makes 
its home beneath the rocks of the mountain streams. 
Being so excellent, it is much sought by these people, 
who have no guns, no bows nor arrows, and few dogs 
with which to hunt. It is their chief reliance when the 
seas are heavy and they cannot go out in their canoes 
to fish. 

Pressing too near the bank, I dislodged a pebble 
which fell with a splash into the stream. Hardly had 
it touched the water, when, with a wild cry of alarm, 
the startled Indians darted into the forest ; we could 
hear them as they ran in their fear, for some minutes. 
At the river we stopped to lunch and drink its pure 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 



117 



water. Crossing the stream we entered an abandoned 
provision ground, where we disturbed two girls and a 
boy gathering yams and tanniers. They shrieked and 
fled, without staying to answer our bon jour. We 
then marched up the gravelly bed of a brook near the 
river bank, our path overhung by wild oranges and 




The j-iuNTER's |3ath. 

coffee trees, until we came abruptly upon a perpen- 
dicular wall of rock directly across our path. It was 
black and frowning, dotted with lovely ferns and long 
drooping leaves of the wild plantain. Swerving 
aside, we found that we must cross the river, and that 
the channel was too deep to wade, and we must 
swim it. 



Il8 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

There are two things forbidden by the laws of 
health in the tropics : eating fruit when the body is 
hot, and bathing when in the same condition. But 
Meyong said it would not hurt us if we would remove 
our clothes and sit in the sun a while to dry the per- 
spiration ; which we did, and then plunged in. It was 
icy cold, and the current was so swift we could hardly 
stem it, for the river flowed between huge walls of 
rock — a narrow gorge. Into the deep black chasm 
we at last ventured, where the sun could not reach us, 
and essayed a peep into the cavernous depths beneath 
the cliffs. Suspended from a swinging rope, a liane, 
we hung upon the surface of as black and dismal a 
pool as I ever saw. The water fell from a great 
height into the farthest recesses of the chasm and 
created a sort of whirlpool where we dared not ven- 
ture, and then it flowed out through a narrow open- 
ing into the daylight and sunlight, falling over a broad 
ledge one sheet of foam. 

The lianes gave a strange effect, hanging from the 
heights to the water like loosened ropes ; but the most 
beautiful and strangely-attractive forms were those of 
the tree-ferns, which sprang out of the crevices in 
the rocks, and spread their broad, lace-like leaves 
above us. 

Refreshed by the bath, and by the contemplation 
of this grand work of nature, we dressed and prepared 
to scale the cliffs on the other side. A little stream 
fell musically over the rock, where it had worn a 
channel for itself in the solid stone, and up this brook- 
let, assisted by tree-ferns and lianes, we climbed and 
climbed. It was now mid-day and the sun gave us a 
warm reminder of his strength, so that we gladly 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 



II 9 



hailed the first sight of a mountain palm. As it is 
never found at less than two thousand feet above the 
sea, its presence assured us of cool breezes ; and not 
only of cool breezes but of possible approach to the 
region of the parrots. 

The great Imperial Parrot, the "Cicero" of the 
Indians, the Chrysotis august a of ornithologists, 
delights to feed upon the seeds of this tree. We did 
not, however, hear any cry or noise betokening their 
presence, for at noon in the tropics all animal life is 
silent. 

We went up and on for several hours into a region 
of palms and " gommier trees," and at last halted be- 
neath towering trees, on a carpet of green, where we 
threw ourselves upon the ground. My boys were 
soon refreshed and sprang up again to seek water, 
far down the hill. 

While they were gone I lay upon my back, study- 
ing the forms of the various trees above me. They 
formed a perfect canopy of green which the sun could 
not pierce. Exceeding all others in height, as well 
as in usefulness, is the tree known to the natives as 
the "gommier," or gum-tree {Bursera gummifcra). 
Some of the trunks are eight feet in diameter, throw 
out huge buttresses on all sides, like the wall-supports 
of a Gothic church, and rise into the air one hundred 
feet. The seeds of this tree are favorite food of 
the parrots and wood-pigeons. Its branches and 
trunk are completely hidden in a wealth of parasitic 
growth and lianes. This is the tree used by the 
Caribs, even at the present day, for their canoes. 
From a single trunk they hollow out, by means of 
fire and axe, a canoe in the rough. This is most 



120 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

often done far in the mountains, and the hollowed 
log must be dragged, with great labor, to the shore. 
There it is placed in the shade and filled with water, 
to open it ; a strip is nailed along the top for a gun- 
wale, knees put in to strengthen it ; it is finished 
smoothly with the axe, and then makes a strong, 
buoyant boat, which floats lightly on the water, and 
rides gracefully heavy seas. In such a boat the an- 
cient Caribs made war excursions of more than three 
hundred miles. From the bark of this valuable tree 
exudes a gum that burns freely and with such grateful 
odor that it is used in the Romish churches as incense. 
This gum is wrapped in bark in an ingenious manner 
by the Indians, and made into torches, ox flambeaux, 
three feet long, which are used by hunters and fisher- 
men at night. Hence the tree is also known as the 
" flambeau tree." 

Another very useful tree is the " bois de bonte" the 
young saplings of which are used in making the 
ajoupa, or hut. It is tall, of lesser height than the 
gommier, with fine ovate leaves. Upon the seeds of 
this tree, also, the parrots feed, and its abundance here 
induced my boys to select this site for our forest camp. 
But the most interesting thing about it is the property 
of the bark, which, when steeped in tea or in rum, has 
a warming effect upon the human system, and has 
probably some medicinal qualities. Winding among 
the branches of this tree are those of another called 
" bois diable" or devil's wood ; it is much used in 
making charcoal and flambeaux. 

The} r returned from the spring after a long absence, 
with the calabash and a section of bamboo full of 
water. Meyong started a fire with a flake of gom- 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 



121 



mier gum, and then departed for covering for the 
house, which he and his companion were now to 
erect. It was very near dark, and I did not think 
they could put a roof over our heads before sunset ; 
but when I mentioned this doubt they smiled and told 
me to rest quietly. Coryet then cut about a dozen 

saplings and drew _____ 

them up to the fire. 
Across two crotched 
uprights, some eight 
feet high, he placed 
a pole about twelve 
feet in length for the 
ridge-pole of the 
house. From this 
front pole he extend- 
ed three other stout 
limbs to the ground, 
and across these again 
at right angles he 

lashed ten others "-:■-■ :-'-^^: ^rJ^SMsi 

about a loot and a hah apart, ^ppp^^'V, ?< 
Thus he had the frame-work * - •■ ! ?M ''■■■[' / 

of a roof in less than half an hour, and 'b\\l/ 
every pole was lashed securely without a single rope, 
and fastened firmly without a nail. 

It was interesting to watch him at this work. When 
he had placed the poles in position he left them and 
went to a tree near at hand, and drew down from its 
branches, sixty feet from the ground, several hundred 
feet of lialines and lianes, the latter large as grape- 
vines, the former small as fish-lines, and so lithe and 
tough that a hard knot could be tied in one without 




122 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

its breaking. With these he fastened the framework 
together. 

By this time Meyong had returned with a back- 
load of strips of thin white bark. They were about 
six feet in length, and looked like great flakes 
of slippery-elm bark. Upon examination I found 
that they were the sheaths or layers from around 
the terminal bud of the mountain palm. This bud, 
which is much sought as a delicacy, and cooked 
like cabbage, forms the apex of the stem of the 
palm ; and this rare vegetable, forming only enough 
for a meal for a small party, is only obtained by 
cutting down one of the stateliest trees in the 
world. It was from a fallen palm that Meyong had 
stripped these layers, which he now threw upon the 
ground. 

With his cutlass he shaved away the middle of 
each, thus making the central portion so thin that 
it could be spread out flat. Each piece was then 
about four feet broad and six to seven long ; and two 
breadths of four pieces each completely covered the 
skeleton shape of the roof and made a water-tight 
covering. The lower course was laid first, with the 
upper overlapping it, like two rows of shingles. 
Across each course was laid a pole, fastened at either 
end to the poles projecting on each side underneath. 
In less than an hour we had a good roof over us, im- 
pervious to water. A few palm leaves were fastened 
at the sides, and a huge back-load of small and 
springy leaves thrown on the ground for a bed. Over 
these I threw my poncho of rubber silk and a warm 
gray blanket to protect me from the night air. Thus 
we had house, and food at hand, all obtained from 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 123 

material on the spot, with no foreign aid save a single 
cutlass. 

I say food, but forgot to specify what it was and 
how obtained. Meyong had brought us a luscious 
morsel from that same palm, in the shape of a great, 
fat grub, large as my finger, which he proposed to 
fry at supper time. With characteristic generosity, 
he offered me the whole of it, but I declined, and he 
and his friend smacked their lips in anticipation. 
This grub was from an egg laid in the decaying heart 
of the palm by a black beetle, which always chooses 
such a place of deposit for its eggs. The ramiers 
were plucked and dressed, and some potatoes and 
yams boiled. The former made a fine stew for sup- 
per, after which, as we were all very tired, we sought 
our couch of palm leaves. I threw a large piece of 
gum upon the fire before retiring, and sat a while 
watching the curling smoke and inhaling the sweet 
incense. 

There was a moon, a bright moon shining in the 
heavens, but I could not see it through the trees ; 
it only turned the darkness of night beneath the foliage 
into dusky gloom, and twinkled through the leaves a 
single diamond ray. 

The voices of the night are many, but principally 
issue from frog's and nocturnal cicadas. The most 
conspicuous is the "crak-crak," which continually 
repeats the two syllables forming its name, from sun- 
set to sunrise. There are several frogs also that give 
utterance to the most comical sounds ; but the one 
that made me laugh was a small frog, like a rain- 
frog, and what he repeated all night long was this : 
" Rig a jig jig, rig a jig jig, amen I " 



124 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Soon, the many voices blended into one, and I was 
asleep. Wrapped in my blanket, my gun by my side, 
and my two Indians stretched in slumber near me, I 
slept long and soundly, nor stirred till near morning. 
It may have been an hour before daylight, as I lay 
in that half conscious state that sometimes precedes 
awaking, I heard distinctly the ringing of steel upon 
steel, echo through the forest. Listening dreamily, 
I heard it again — cling, clang I Instantly I was 
transported to another clime, and the forest and its 
tropical wonders faded away. I was in a little New 
England town, in the shop of the village blacksmith, 
with the old mare I used to drive waiting for a shoe. 
It was a hot, sultry day in July, the hay-makers were 
sweltering in the sun, and the leaves on the trees stood 
still. Cling, clang, cling! I saw the old blacksmith 
smiting the shoe as he fashioned it, and heard the 
metallic ring as the hammer fell with a half-blow upon 
the anvil. Cling! — " Monsieur ! " 

" What — what's the matter? " 

"Monsieur," — it was Coryet who spoke — " you 
no hear ze blacksmit?" 

"The blacksmith ! ah, yes ; but where is he?" 

" Oh, m'sieur, he no on ze terre, he en haul in ze 
tree." 

" In the tree ! A blacksmith in a tree? " 

" Oui, m'sieur, mat's he no blacksmit veritable, he 
inseck ; he make ze noise wiz hees weeng." 

Now I saw it clearly, it was one of those cicada?, 
or a cricket, which produces such a noise by rubbing 
together the heel-plates of its wings. Thus was my 
pleasant dream dissipated. It was now about sunrise, 
though it would be long before the sun could pene- 



THE HAUNTS OF THE Pa.^ qt# J2f - 

trate our leafy grove. Meyong made but x^^^^ 
just enough for the preparation of our coffee, for u. 
wary parrots would detect our whereabouts, and de- 
part farther up the mountain. We heard the faint 
cry of one, answered by another, far down the moun- 
tain-side, and this stimulated us to extra haste in 
departing. 

Coryet and Meyong were to descend by a ravine to 
a valley, while I was to follow along the ridge a mile 
or so, and take my stand beneath a tall tree which was 
accurately described. I preferred going alone, as I 
ever do when hunting, not only from the fact that less 
noise would attend me, but that then I could indulge to 
the full that communion with nature which the pres- 
ence of a companion always interrupts, or rudely 
breaks. 

It was still gloomy in the forest; a shower had 
fallen during the night, and leaves, vines, and ferns 
were heavy with moisture. Noiselessly I pursued my 
wa}', indulging in that sweet reverie which solitude in 
a great forest always excites. Suddenly there broke 
upon the stillness the faint report of a gun. This at 
once stirred the blood in my veins, as my boys had 
promised not to shoot at any other bird than the im- 
perial parrot, and I hoped that this announced the 
capture of one. Impatiently resting beneath the huge 
tree, and concealing myself in a bower of orchids and 
hanging ferns, I waited for something to appear. 
Soon the harsh screams of parrots broke upon my 
ear, and a flock of ten or twelve swept through the 
woods like a whirlwind, just beyond range. They 
were the small green parrot, another species, but 
equally desirable with the larger. Then all was still 



. APS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

,j deep silence broken only by the call of the 
. ^od-pigeon. 
Turning my attention more closely to the vines that 
enclosed me, to be satisfied that there were no poison- 
ous centipedes or scorpions lurking there, I unex- 
pectedly beheld a vision of loveliness seldom vouch- 
safed to dwellers of the icy North. Close at hand, 
within two feet of me, sat a tiny humming-bird on a 
downy nest, which was fastened upon a twig no larger 
than a pencil. During all my stay it had sat there, 
gazing upon the first object of human kind, probably, 
it had ever beheld. Fearlessly it glanced at me with 
its bright, black eyes, and curiously it followed my 
every motion with its shapely little head. Involun- 
tarily I stretched forth my hand to touch it, but at 
once drew back for fear it might take alarm and fly 
away. A buzzing of wings attracted my attention, 
and I beheld the mate of the one on the nest, who 
darted at me with unmistakable fury, his glittering 
crest erected and anger shooting from his eyes. 
Verily ! had this pigmy's body been in proportion to 
his heart, I should have been destroyed. Satisfied 
that he could not drive me away by darting at my 
eyes, he rested himself a moment upon a twig near 
the nest, where he was at once joined by the female, 
who seemed to endeavor by caresses to soothe his 
ruffled temper and to assure him that my intentions 
toward them were not evil. Touched to the heart by 
this exhibition of trust and love, I would not have 
harmed these little innocents for a fortune. Exposed 
for a- moment, as the female left the nest, were two 
eggs, white as snow, diminutive as seed-pearls. 

For several hours I watched without even a sound 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 1 27 

to reward me, and during my stay those humming- 
birds watched with me, the male darting off upon 
frequent forays for insects and honey, the female 
snuggled cosily in her dainty nest. The little hus- 
band now looked upon me as an intruder, to be tol- 
erated only upon sufferance, and at my slightest 
motion he would dive at my face ; at which exhibi- 
tion of bravery the little wife would twitter with de- 
light and swell with pride. 

Finally I retraced my steps, as it was near noon. 
I had nearly reached camp when I saw a puff of 
smoke and heard a loud report, and directly Coryet, 
who had espied me, ran forward with animated ges- 
tures. Interpreting their meaning, and obeying his 
directions, which he jabbered in broken French, I 
directed my attention to an immense gommier tree a 
few hundred feet away. At first I saw nothing, but 
approaching I gradually resolved the mass of foliage 
into its component leaves and twigs, vines and air 
plants, and caught sight of a glowing body clothed in 
purple and golden-green. 

In the cloud of smoke from my gun it disappeared, 
but only to gleam again athwart the leafy space ere 
it fell with heavy thud to the ground. To recover it 
was the work of an instant with the excited Indian, 
whose enthusiasm almost equalled mine as he placed 
in my hands this largest of all the parrots of the 
Indies. Their first shot in the morning had been in- 
effectual, but the second had wounded the mate to 
this ; and it was its loud cries that caused my bird to 
remain so long in a place fraught with so much 
danger. 

At last I had secured this valuable bird ! And I 



128 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

had the satisfaction, several months later, of learning 
that mine were the first ever sent to America. Does 
it not seem strange that though Columbus, in 1493, 
when he approached this island of Dominica, es- 
pecially noticed the "flights of parrots and other 
tropical birds," nearly four hundred years should 
elapse before one of these parrots should reach the 
continent he was the means of discovering? 

This bird is peculiar to the island and is found 
nowhere else. Its cry is harsh, somewhat resembling 
the cry of the wild turkey. It does not, like the small 
parrots, associate in flocks, but is always found in 
pairs ; once mated, they are sundered only by death. 
Morning and evening, when feeding, they cry out 
noisily, but at other times are silent ; though if a gun 
be fired within their hearing, or a tree fall, they will 
all scream loudly and harshly once or twice, and then 
subside into perfect silence. They are shy and wild, 
since in the autumn months they are much hunted, 
being then fat and delicious. In size, they are nearly 
as large as a fowl, being twenty-three inches long and 
thirty-six in extent of wings. In color, they are bright 
green above and purple beneath, with metallic reflec- 
tions. Rarely does it descend to the valleys, as its 
favorite food is in the mountains. Its nest is made in 
the broken shaft of a palm, very high from the ground. 
The young, if obtained early, will readily learn to 
talk. 

While the two Indians were away looking for 
more parrots, an accident happened to one of my 
birds which greatly excited my ire. I had skinned 
both birds and plentifully besprinkled them with 
arsenic, and had left them on a log near the ajoupa, 



THE HAUNTS OF THE PARROT. 120, 

while I went in search of some dry moss with which 
to stuff them. Returning, when some distance away 
I heard a low grunt, and looking up saw a large 
hog, black as night and gaunt as a wolf, snuffing at 
the log. I darted forward with a cry, but not before 
the sable fiend had seized one of the birds by the head 
and started to run. Thinking only of my specimen, 
I pressed him so closely that he turned at bay, show- 
ing fangs long as my fingers. Then he started again, 
as I hesitated a moment, and ran more swiftly than 
before. In running, he stepped upon the trailing 
winy of the bird and wrenched the head from the 
body, but kept on, crunching the bones between his 
powerful jaws, and disappeared in a clump of bam- 
boos. As I had neither gun nor knife, I was power- 
less to avert this catastrophe, but was obliged to 
bottle my wrath until Meyong's return. He then in- 
formed me that there were hundreds of wild hogs in 
the woods, but that we would require dogs to hunt 
them with. 

It was at once decided that Coryet should return 
to the coast on the morrow with my birds, procure 
more provisions, and two hunting-dogs belonging 
to old Joseph, a chief. Upon his return we would 
move higher up the mountains, and seek reparation 
for my bird from the droves of wild hogs there roam- 
ing the forests. At the same time it was possible I 
might add to my captures that inhabitant of the upper 
volcano, the Diablotin, or "Little Devil," which had 
not been seen for thirty years. 

9 



130 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 

THE BEE-TREE. — ENVELOPED IN PLANTS. — ASCENDING THE 
GIANT TREE. — SMOKING OUT THE BEES. — VEGETABLE ROPES. 

— HONEY AD LIBITUM. — A BITE. — A HOWL. — THE BEE- 
EATERS. — CARIB PERVERSITY. — SWEET CONTENT. — HOW TO 
DRAW A BEE-LINE. — THE PALM TROUGHS. — A BAMBOO CUP. 

— A STROLL AND AN ALARM. — THE CARIB GHOST. — TRA- 
DITIONS. — THE MARCH RESUMED. — AN ARMY OF CRABS. — 
CRABS THAT MIGRATE. — DELICIOUS FOOD. — THE MOUNTAIN 
PEAK. — HUNTING THE "DIABLOTIN." — IS IT A MYTH? — 
CAUGHT IN A STORM. — THE CARIB CASTLE. — THE CAPTIVE'S 
CAVE. — VAMPIRES. — THE FOREST SPIRIT. 

EARLY the next morning, Coryet departed for the 
coast, taking with him nothing but his cutlass, 
his pannier, and a cooked tannier to eat on the way. 
He left us barely enough provisions for a day, but 
Meyong reckoned upon finding some wild yams, and 
shooting birds and agoutis. He went a little way with 
his beloved friend, and then returned to the ajoupa. 

After the customary coffee had been prepared and 
brought me, he returned to the fire and proceeded to 
collect together four or five brands some two feet in 
length, with blazing ends, and bind them firmly into 
a flambeau, with tough lianes. Knowing it was un- 
necessary to question him when he had unrestrained 
power to do as he pleased in the forest, I watched him 
as he fastened on his wicker pannier, and lined it with 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. I3I 

broad leaves. This once strapped to his shoulders, he 
took up the calabash, the cutlass and blazing brands, 
and bade me follow him. I did so, carrying, of course, 
my gun (my never-absent friend), and swinging on 
my game-basket, with a supply of cartridges. 

He then led the way down the hill, and stopped 
almost in sight of the smoke of our fire in camp. It 
was beneath a tree of vast size, which shot up from a 
wilderness of fallen trunks and limbs, a gommier, 
towering aloft in kingly majesty, enveloped in lianes 
which hung from every bough and limb, thickly 
covered with broad-leaved parasites, orchids and wild 
pines, its base throwing out strong buttresses like 
the cypress of the South, but higher and broader, its 
upper limbs jagged and weather-beaten, stretching 
their multitudinous finders heavenward two hundred 
feet above us. It was beginning to decay, and this 
forest monarch of centuries, perhaps, was almost 
ready to totter on his throne. 

Meyong pointed to a dark spot as large as my hand, 
some sixty feet above, and said, "You no see urn?" 

"See what?" 

"Zebees!" 

Then I fully understood the meaning of his prep- 
arations, which I had till then hardly surmised. This 
was a bee-tree, the home of a swarm, one of the 
numberless progeny of some bees from Europe, which 
went wild a hundred years ago. 

Laying his gun at the foot of the tree, and lopping 
off a few leaves from a parasite overhead, to protect 
it from the damp, Meyong seized hold of a large liane, 
cut it from its attachment at the base, and climbed up 
into the tree. Remember, there were no limbs for 



132 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

eighty feet. About twenty feet up he rested a moment, 
and requested me to attach the bundle of smoking 
fagots to a liane ; he then drew it up to him and stuck 
it into a crevice. 

Then he went up again, — he didn't "shin," by 
clinging with his arms and legs ; the tree was too 
broad, and the mass of vines and plants too enormous 
for that, — but he just seized a liane, like a rope, 
between his toes, the great toe and the one next it, 
and walked up, hand over hand, and toe over toe. 
The pannier fastened to his shoulders, and the cutlass 
dangling behind from his belt, gave him the appear- 
ance of a hump-backed monkey, as he ascended 
rapidly, half enveloped in smoke. Great parasites, 
with leaves like cabbage leaves, and orchids large as 
peonies, came crashing down, sprinkling me with 
water from their inverted calyxes, as he went on 
steadily climbing. 

At last he reached a point just beneath the hole, at 
a height equal to the mast-head of a brig, and then, 
holding on with one hand, he drew up the firebrands 
and thrust their unlighted ends into a crevice a little 
below the hole. He signaled me to attach the calabash 
to a lialine no larger than a fish-line, which I did, 
and awaited further orders. Detaching a brand from 
the bundle, he thrust it into the hole previous to put- 
ting in his hand. He was almost hidden by a cloud 
of angry bees, who, stupefied by the smoke, did not 
seem to recognize in him an enemy, and hundreds 
alighted upon his shirt and pantaloons, and many on 
his bare legs. The hole was too small, and Meyong 
enlarged it with his cutlass ; previously, however, he 
had formed a staging upon which to stand, about 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 133 

four feet beneath the aperture, by thrusting a stout 
pole through the lianes, and lashing it with a lialine. 
The fagots, to which he had secured apiece of punky 
wood, were smoking bravely, and he now signaled 
me to send up the calabash. First, however, he filled 
his leaf-lined pannier, or basket-knapsack, with great 
flakes of wax, throwing away the first crust, which 
was brown and dry, and very soon had it full to the 
top with honey-laden wax. Detaching it, he lowered 
it down by one of the living ropes which surrounded 
him, and drew up and filled the calabash. I laid the 
wax dripping with honey upon some long and broad 
leaves of the wild plantain, three feet long by one foot 
broad. At every successive descent of the vessel it 
contained more and more liquid, and at last came 
down with but little wax, nothing but golden and 
fragrant syrup. 

What should I do? There was no bowl or pan to 
put it in. 

Meyong saw my perplexity, and shouted down for 
me to collect some of the boat-shaped spathes of the 
mountain palm, the sheaths that protect and overhang 
the seeds and flowers. A palm lay prostrate near 
me ; two of its spathes, exactly like the half of a pea- 
pod in shape, five feet long and two feet wide, were 
quickly drawn to the tree. They were clean and 
freshly washed by the dews of the morning, and into 
one of these I poured the honey fast as it came to me 
from the tree above. 

An exclamation caused me to look up, and I saw my 
friend in agony, grimaces passing swiftly over his 
face, as he endeavored vainly to dislodge an intruding 
bee, whose success in finding a vulnerable place op 



134 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Meyong's skin was proclaimed by that worthy in a 
howl of dismay. 

Meyong was a good boy and generally very trac- 
table, but he would never listen to my advice and wear 
his shirt inside his pantaloons. He said it was the 
fashion to wear it outside, and used an expression 
equivalent to that in so common use among the ladies : 
"To be out of fashion is to be out of the world." 

I argued with him and entreated him, but in this he 
would have his own way ; and I really believe that if 
every man in the Carib nation were bitten by a bee 
every day in his mortal life, he would still persist in dis- 
playing a flag of distress above his nether coverings. 

And thus he went on, with alternate howls and 
exclamations of sweeter character, such as miel douce, 
(honey sweet,) until the great palm troughs were full 
enough and I concluded it would be well to desist. 

Early in the proceedings he had whistled shrilly 
several times, and when I asked the reason, he said it 
was to call the maljini. "Mai fini"was the name 
given to the hawk, from its cry ; but this applied to a 
small bird of the fly-catcher family, which would come 
and eat the bees and thus diminish the number of 
Meyong's assailants. The bird came, a small, shy, 
gray bird, which approached cautiously, evidently 
astonished to see a human being up in a tree sur- 
rounded with smoke, and another at the foot of the 
tree. But he did not stop to speculate, but worked 
assiduously, and soon he was joined by others ; 
though their united efforts failed to lessen perceptibly 
the angry swarm. 

Supplied with all the honey I cared for, I sat con- 
tentedly upon a fallen log, with my feet thrust down 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 135 

among tangled twigs, exposed to the gaze of ants, 
centipedes, scorpions and what not, and calmly 
munched the waxen cells, expressing from those hex- 
agonal receptacles their delicious burden of honey, by 
a process the most primitive, but also the most satis- 
factory, known to man. 

As I sat there a picture of sweet endeavor, Me- 
yong prepared to descend, and brought with him as he 
swung down, hand under hand, a cloud of bees, who, 
attracted by the cargo of honey in the spathes and by 
my sweet countenance, left the boy and traveled in my 
direction. Entangled as I was in the mesh work of 
branches, I furnished a scene for the hardened Me- 
yong, who, still smarting from recent stings, was a 
most joyful witness of my discomfiture. 

Though never an apt scholar in mathematics, I 
learned a lesson from the bees that day, and described, 
as accurately as the nature of the ground would allow, 
a bee-line for camp. I think the most stupid student 
in school would be able to understand that a straight 
line was the " shortest distance between two points," 
with a swarm of angry bees after him thirsting for his 
blood ; especially, when at one of those points was 
safety, and at the other bees. 

In the afternoon I went out hunting and was success- 
ful, bringing back several pigeons. Meyong mean- 
while had not been idle, for he had, ready-cooked, the 
cabbage of a mountain palm, and two hideous grubs 
nicely browning over the coals. Now we had veg- 
etables, meat and honey, but there was no utensil for 
dipping out the latter from the troughs. 

"Come wiz me," said Meyong. 

I went with him a few rods to a clump of bamboos 



I36 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

— the same in which the hog had disappeared the day 
before. Selecting a long reed an inch and a half in 
diameter, he cut it off with his cutlass. The joints in 
this reed were about four inches apart, and it was a 
hollow tube partitioned at the joints ; upon the outside 
of each grew a lateral branch. Trimming off the 
small shoot and cutting the larger part off about 
three inches each side of it, he had then a double- 
ended cup with a firm handle, divided in the middle. 
Upon our return to the village, Meyong covered this 
cup very neatly with basket-work ; and I have it now 
before me as I write. 

Towards night, I took my gun and wandered a little 
way from camp to try to shoot s6me of the immense 
vampire bats that haunted the forest. My attention 
being taken up with the many objects about me, I 
wandered farther than I had intended, and darkness 
fell about me at a distance from the camp. If the 
days are glorious, the tropic nights are grand ; im- 
pressive in the deep brooding silence, until the insects 
of the night break the stillness, or the hoot of the owl, 
or the shriek of the diablotin, disturbs it. 

I had been seated a little while and it had grown 
quite dark, and I was about returning, when, as I 
moved, a stick crackled sharply, thrilling me through 
with a strange feeling of fear. It was nothing but a 
dry twig upon which I myself had stepped, yet an 
unaccountable dread of moving possessed me at that 
moment, as though I felt the presence of another 
person near, whom I could not see. As I walked, I 
peered all about me, but could see nothing. Yet, during 
all that short walk I felt as if in the presence of a 
powerful man about to lay his hand on my shoulder. 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 137 

This feeling I could not shake off ; but I reached camp 
without harm, though my face must have betrayed 
me, for Meyong noticed my agitation and remarked : 
"Ah, you meet jumbie, eh?" 

Jotnbie, or jumbie, is the name by which are known 
the evil spirits who walk the earth. 

" No," I replied, " I have seen nothing." I did not 
care to show to Meyong any such foolish fear as had 
just before possessed me. 

" You no see him, but he see you ; something make 
you 'fraid." This I could not deny ; and then Me- 
yong launched into the story of the ghost that haunted 
this mountain, which he fully believed. Stretched 
upon my bed of palm-leaves, I listened as he talked. 

"If 'crak-crak' bawl one kind way, some person 
go to dead. Me sinks me hear zat to-day. Long 
agone, in old Carib time, one berry cruel man say he 
must to be bury like he sit down, he must to be put in 
he grave just like he sit on bench. Well, zey make 
him so, and not long all ze person get walloping ; zey 
know not who make it, but if a man only so speak of 
ze man buried and say, ' Ah, poor fellah,' he shu to 
get him skin well wallop. It make ze person most 
fright to dead, and if zey but go near he hut where 
him bury in ze night, zey must to see him jumbie and 
get blow on ze head. Soon again, he jumbie take to 
go in ze canoe all about ze coast ; when zey go fishin' 
he always to be dah : he whistle, he sing, an' ze canoe 
men use to him an' not mine him. One day ze canoe 
swamp an' ze jumbie make to drown, but ze Carib 
men he no drown ; zey see him no mo'. Person say 
he come up to ze mountain, zat I sinks myself. After 
zat, no mo' Carib bury like him sitting down." 



138 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

By the time this was finished I was asleep and knew 
no more till morning. Instead of waiting for Coryet on 
the third day, Meyong proposed that we should make 
an easy march up the mountain-side, leaving a sign for 
his friend to follow when he should reach the camp. 
Our route lay through a region similar to the one we 
left, only constantly becoming more and more elevated 
and consequently rugged. 

It was during this march that we met one of the 
most curious processions ever seen in this land of 
wonders. Climbing the steep hill-side, and clinging 
by one hand as I climbed, giving all my attention to 
my work, I suddenly became conscious that I was 
surrounded by moving objects, whom I could hear as 
they rustled over leaves and rocks. I rubbed my 
eyes and looked around. Meyong was behind, but 
saw them at the same time I did, and eagerly shouted, 
" Gardez ! Ze crabs ! " It was true, there was an 
army of crabs, and we were in the midst of it. It 
behooved us to get out of the way at once, for these 
crabs (as large as a good-sized crab of the sea-shore) 
have a disagreeable way of climbing up and over 
everything in their course, and of using their power- 
ful claws upon the slightest provocation. 

Well, we got behind a large tree, and my guide 
made side forays upon them as they went by (for they 
are most delicious eating), until we had collected as 
many as he could carry. 

And how, think you, did he secure them? Why, he 
just tied their claws together with a lialine, a small 
cord-like root, and then placed them in a heap at 
his feet. Fortunate for us that this was a small 
army, otherwise I don't know how soon we could 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 



139 



have pursued our way, for they sometimes travel by 
thousands. A very old French writer gives the only 

US account 

that we 

can find 

£" of these 

crabs ; and 

were it not 

that I had seen 

them on the 

t!j march, there are 

some things he 

says the truth of 

which I should be 

inclined to doubt. 




They 
live not , 
only in a kind 
of orderlv and 






quiet society in their 



An Army of Crabs. 

retreats in the mountains, but regularly once a year 
march down to the seaside in a body, some millions 
at a time. They choose the months of April and May 
to begin their expeditions, and then sally out from the 



I4O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

stumps of hollow trees, clefts of rocks, and from holes 
which they dig for themselves in the earth. 

The sea is their destination, and here they cast their 
spawn. For this purpose, no sooner has the crab 
reached the shore than it eagerly goes to the edge of 
the water and lets the waves wash over its body to 
wash off the spawn. The eggs are hatched under 
the sand, and soon after, millions of the new-born 
crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly traveling 
up the mountains. In going down, they turn neither 
to right nor left ; even if they meet a house, they will 
attempt to scale it. The procession sets forward with 
the precision of an army. It is commonly divided 
into battalions, with the strongest in front. The night 
is their chief time of traveling, but if it rains by day, 
they improve that occasion. When the sun shines, 
they make a universal halt till evening. In the season 
of moulting, they retire to their burrows to cast their 
shells, filling them with grass and leaves. 

My native boy's account of their habits agreed sub- 
stantially with this, and he added, moreover, that if 
there was any one thing better than another, it was the 
flesh of these same crabs ; a statement I can cheerfully 
verify, as that night we feasted on crab on the half- 
shell, crabs' claws, crab fricasseed and crab roasted. 

As the camp we had left was at a good height above 
the sea-coast, we were now in the upper regions of the 
mountains. The vegetation had already changed to 
a great extent and had more of an Alpine character. 
As we walked along - we could now and then catch 
glimpses of the sea at a distance, and obtain a view 
of the nearer sea of trees, spread over the fair valleys 
below us. In the afternoon we were painfully scaling 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. I4I 

the precipitous sides of one of the two peaks which 
form the double summit of Morne Diablotin. We 
were now in the region especially appropriated as 
his home by the Diablotin, or "Little Devil;" and 
anxiously we searched, as we scrambled over the loose 
rock, for some trace of the hole in which he lived. 

Wherever I had been in the island I had heard of 
the diablotin, and my curiosity was excited to such 
a degree that I determined to clear away the mystery 
which surrounded it. For thirty years it had remained 
unseen. Many treated as a myth this story of a bird 
living in the mountains (for it is a bird) so long a 
period without appearing to human vision. But suffi- 
cient proof existed, in my opinion, to warrant a search 
for it. The older people of the island had distinct re- 
membrances of seeing it, and attributed its disappear- 
ance to the depredations of the " manacou," a marsu- 
pial animal like an opossum, which hunted it from its 
holes and devoured it and its eggs. No two persons 
agreed as to its color, shape, or size ; but I had seen 
in an old French work, written by a Catholic mission- 
ary to these islands some two centuries ago, — the 
Pere Labat — a good description of the bird. This 
description, doubtless translated bodily, I also found 
in an old history of Dominica, published in 1791. It 
says: "The diablotin, so called by the French from 
its uncommonly ugly appearance, is nearly the size 
of a duck, and is web-footed. It has a big, round 
head, crooked bill like a hawk, and large, full eyes 
like an owl. Its head, part of the neck, chief feath- 
ers of the wings and tail, are black ; the other parts 
of its body are covered with a fine, milk-white down. 
They feed on fish, flying in great flocks to the sea- 



142 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

side in the night-time, and in their flight make a 
disagreeable noise like owls, which bird they also 
resemble in their dislike of the day, when they are 
hid in holes in the mountains, where they are easily 
caught. This is done by stopping up some of the 
holes which lead to their hiding-places and placing 
empty bags over the rest, which communicate under- 
ground with those stopped. The birds, at their usual 
time of going forth. to seek their food in the night- 
time, finding their passage impeded, make to the 
holes covered with the bags, into which entering, 
great numbers of them are caught." 

Though hardly accepting the statement by the moun- 
taineers that a bird so far-flying could be exterminated 
by a merely local disturber, I was obliged to admit 
that it no longer inhabited its old homes. For two 
hours we prolonged the search, cold and wet, but 
found nothing to reward us. We saw, to be sure, 
many cracks and crannies in the rocks where a dia- 
blotin might have hidden, but no long holes, such as 
those made by the "Mother Cary's chickens" in the 
Bay of Fundy. There, five years previously, I had 
drawn many a petrel from the end of a long, winding 
hole, as it sat quietly upon its single egg; but this 
other petrel (for it is a giant petrel, probably the Prion 
CaribbcBo) was not to be found, and I departed sor- 
rowfully down the mountain, to look for shelter. 

We were at such an altitude' that mist and rain con- 
stantly surrounded us. The fierce wind, that always 
blows from the eastward, nearly swept us over the 
narrow crest. Thunder boomed beneath and around 
us, and rain fell in torrents at times, and the view I 
had hoped to obtain of the fairest group of islands in 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. I43 

the Southern Sea was hidden by a veil of mist and 
fog. It was nearly dark, though perhaps not very 
late ; but the cloud of mist aided approaching night, 
and I was apprehensive that exposure would result to 
our injury, especially as there was no roof to cover us 
and no material for making a fire. My implicit faith 
in the resources of my guide was not unrewarded, for 
we had descended but a short distance when he cried 
out, pointing to an immense rock as large as a church, 
just in sight farther down, "You no see ajoupa?" 

It was, as I said, a huge rock, so delicately poised 
upon a spur from the main ridge that it seemed ready 
to fall. We seemed surrounded by an almost intermi- 
nable forest beneath, while above towered the twin 
mountain-peaks, bare and gray. As those near peaks 
were more than five thousand feet above the sea, we 
were now in a region cold and bleak, forty-eight hun- 
dred feet above the coast. Meyong had called this 
rock an ajoupa, and there must be, I knew, some 
reason for it, as he was one of those matter-of-fact 
persons who call a spade a spade. Just as we reached 
an angle of the rock he turned abruptly from the trail 
and dived beneath another rock into a hole about 
breast-high. Following him, I found myself in a 
spacious cavern hollowed out of the rock, with an 
entrance on the mountain-side just large enough to 
admit a man conveniently. 

The sudden transition from the howling of a tem- 
pest to comparative silence, from the fury of a pelting 
rain to the shelter of a roof, was bewildering, and I 
looked about me in wonder. While I stood in the 
semi-darkness that wrapped everything in gloom, the 
water dripping from my saturated garments, Meyong 



144 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

drew out from a corner of the cave a manufactured 
flambeau and lighted it. By the glare it shed around 
I could see that I was in a smoke-blackened chamber 
large enough to contain fifty men, with high vaulted 
roof and rude seats hollowed out of the rock near the 
floor, which latter was covered with a thin coating of 
earth. There was a large heap of dry wood near the 
entrance, from which Meyong drew enough for a fire, 
which was soon blazing cheerily, the smoke escaping 
through some crevices in the roof. 

My first care was for my beloved gun ; and having 
taken off the barrels and inverted them near the fire, 
I oiled the locks and steel parts of the stock, and, 
later, the barrels themselves ; then stripping myself 
of clothing, I drew a blanket over my shoulders and 
waited for my garments to dry. Huge bats, disturbed 
by the unwonted light, flapped above us with regular 
beats of their broad wings, some of them large as 
pigeons, known as vampires, true blood-suckers. A 
small variety also flew softly about, hundreds of them 
playing in the space above our heads and darting 
at us. 

"Zis old Charaib caverne," said Meyong. 

" What, the one to which the chief carried the gov- 
ernor's wife?" demanded I quickly. 

"Out, ze rock veritable." 

A long time ago, — nearly or quite two hundred 
years, — when the Carib was known only as the 
cruel, untamable cannibal, these Indians made long 
cruises in their canoes to procure victims for sacrifice 
at their feasts. One hundred miles north of Dominica 
lies the lovely island of Antigua, at that time thinly 
settled. To this island the Caribs made frequent pred- 



A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. I45 

atory raids, always returning well rewarded. In one 
of these excursions the chief of the tribe captured 
the wife of the governor of Antigua, who lived in a 
secluded nook in that island, near the sea. She was 
brought a prisoner to this place, to this very cave, 
Meyong says, and held, contrary to their custom, for 
ransom. I will not try to depict the wrath and de- 
spair of the husband, nor the details of the pursuit he 
at once organized, but merely state that he sought her 
out, traced her to the Carib retreat by fragments of 
clothing torn from her by cruel thorns, and eventually 
succeeded in returning with her. She had been weeks 
in captivity, but had been well treated. 

This, then, was the cavern in which that delicate 
lady lay captive, nearly two centuries ago ! Truly, it 
was a poor retreat for a tenderly nurtured woman, 
but a grand one for Meyong and myself. After the 
fire was well going, Meyong made a large torch, 
which he stuck in a crevice outside as a guide to 
Coryet in his ascent. The crabs, which the sly fel- 
low, with wise forethought, had deposited in a heap 
by the rock as we had ascended, were then brought 
in and some of them roasted ; and these, with some 
cold boiled yam, made a grateful repast. We sat 
over the fire till late, then spread our blankets upon 
the earth and lay down to sleep. 

Several hours later I was awakened by a disturb- 
ance, and rolling over quickly, saw Coryet standing 
in the doorway. But it appeared more like his appa- 
rition than himself in flesh and blood, as he stood 
there shaking with cold. The dogs, which he held 
in leash, as soon as released slunk into a corner with 
their tails between their legs, uttering low whines. 



146 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



The fire had burned low, and it was only by its fit- 
ful gleams that I saw this strange vision. Meyong 
touched me, and whispered, " Coryet see jumbie." 

So it was ; he had seen the visitor of whom I had 
but felt the presence. Looking upon this event, or 
chain of events, in the light of subsequent revelations, 
I laugh ; but at that time I almost believed, with my 
boys, in the existence of a forest spirit. 




A MIDNIGHT MARCH. I47 



CHAPTER X. 

A MIDNIGHT MARCH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 

THE APPARITION. — THE LOST CHIEF. — A FORGOTTEN LANGUAGE. 

— THE MARCH BY TORCHLIGHT. — STRANGE AND DISTORTED 
FORMS. — THE FOREST WILDERNESS. — A MYSTERIOUS SOUND. — 
"A TREE FELLED BY GOD." — VIRGIN, PROTECT US ! — COOKING 
BY STEAM. — THE ROSEWOOD CABIN. — THE CHIEF DISAPPEARS. 

— IS IT GOLD? — A SMALL BOA CONSTRICTOR. — A CARIB BAS- 
ILISK. — THE BIGGEST BUG IN THE WORLD. — IT COMES IN 
SEARCH OF THE NATURALIST. — THE HERCULES BEETLE. — 
CENTIPEDES. — SCORPIONS. — AN UNNAMED PALM WITH EDIBLE 
SEEDS. — A PRIESTESS OF OBEAH. — AFRICAN WITCHCRAFT. — 
ITS STRONGHOLD. — PROSTRATED BY THE HEAT. — FEVER. 

DRAWING the well-nigh exhausted Coryet into 
the cave, Meyong quickly revived the fire, and 
assisted him to disburden himself of his load of pro- 
visions. Weak and trembling, the boy sank to the 
earth ; and not till a drink of rum had been poured 
down his throat could he tell us the cause of his 
alarm. With us as excited listeners, he then gave a 
story, of which the following is the substance : 

He arrived at the camp late in the forenoon, and, 
finding we had left for the cave, followed on at once. 
Burdened with his load and the care of the dogs, he 
was obliged to travel slowly, and it was dark long be- 
fore he left the high-woods belt and struck the upper 
trail. He was not afraid, however, as the dogs gave 
him company, and he walked cheerily on, until a low 



I48 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

growl from one of his canine companions caused him 
to look around. Then he saw, creeping stealthily 
through the low trees on his left, a figure which to 
his excited imagination seemed clothed in shining 
white. He was so terribly frightened, that, notwith- 
standing his heavy load, he darted forward over the 
rocks at a rapid pace. The rattling of the stones set 
adrift by his feet, as they bounded down the steep 
mountain-side, impressed him the more that the spirit 
was pursuing him, and he ran with all his might. 
The flambeau that Meyong had prepared to guide 
him was now but a flickering brand, and he did not 
see it until close upon it. By its presence, however, 
he was enabled more easily to find the cave, in the 
mouth of which he stood as before described. 

He had barely finished this recital when a loud ex- 
clamation from Meyong caused me to look up, and I 
saw in the place so lately occupied by Coryet another 
apparition. This time it was surely the ghost. He 
was not clad in white, however, but in tattered gar- 
ments of skin, and his long hands grasped the top of 
a staff such as no spirit could wield, assuredly. As 
soon as we had recovered from our surprise I sprang 
forward and aided this tottering figure to the fire. It 
was an old man, a very old Indian, who, if he could 
speak, I thought, might be able to tell us of the cap- 
ture of that fair lady who was imprisoned here so 
many years ago. He uttered no word, made no sign ; 
but we did not need either to inform us that he was 
starving and perishing. Again the rum was brought 
into requisition, again did my faithful Meyong bring 
forth from the ashes the tender crabs for our unex- 
pected guest. 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. I49 

Without a doubt, this was the jumbie that had given 
both Coryet and myself such a fright. This harmless, 
pitiful old man, who had approached us in the dire 
extremity of want, had nearly perished through being 
taken for a visitor from the spirit-world, which he 
manifestly so soon would reach. This assurance was 
not necessary to induce my boys to tenderly care for 
him, and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing the 
poor creature resting on the ground in peaceful slum- 
ber. After this event nothing occurred to disturb our 
rest, and we all slept well, the spirit laid that had 
alarmed us ; and not one of those to whom this cave 
belonged in olden time did trouble us. 

We stayed there all the succeeding day, and renewed 
our search, though unsuccessfully, for the Diablotin. 
Our guest slept till nearly noon, but when he awoke 
he seemed greatly refreshed, and strove to make us 
sensible of his gratitude. The words he uttered were 
those of an unknown tongue, but we knew that he 
fain would express his thanks, and tried to assure 
him that we understood him. 

It was finally concluded between Coryet and Me- 
yong that this old man was a crazy chief, who, refusing 
to submit to English rule, had fled to the mountains 
more than fifty years ago, whence he sometimes vis- 
ited the Indians of the coast by stealth. For several 
years he had not been seen, and it was thought that 
he was dead. He had been insane for many years. 
Towards night he became restless, and late in the 
evening he insisted upon going outside. Finally, his 
desire to depart grew so strong, and his gestures to 
us to follow so violent, that, after consultation, my 
boys were convinced that it would be best to follow 



150 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

him. The night was dark, as the moon had not then 
risen, but it was clear. When the old man learned 
that we were willing to accompany him he seemed 
content; but whether joy or sadness overspread his 
features, it was all one with the expression of them, 
so sunken and wrinkled were they. The boys pre- 
pared torches and collected our luggage, and then we 
started off. The old Indian struck a brisker gait than 
we had supposed him capable of, and we followed by 
the light of the torches. 

There is a weird solemnity about a night march in 
a great forest. On either side of you is a wall of inky 
blackness ; before, behind, the same enclosing gloom, 
against which the torches send a feeble glare. By 
the time we had reached the high woods, where the 
trees were completely enveloped in masses of vines, 
our surroundings assumed an aspect wild and terrible. 
That hanging liane, twisted and contorted, took the 
shape of a serpent ready to dart at us as we passed. 
The flickering play of the light upon the leaves of 
trees and parasites, alternately bringing to view and 
leaving in shade strange forms, gave to everything a 
startlingly living appearance. It was as if all had 
been changed into animated beings, especially nox- 
ious insects, like scorpions and spiders, which, one 
and all, seemed crawling in our direction. 

At last we came into a more open forest, a densely 
wooded plateau, the home of the wild hog and the 
resort of runaway slaves in olden time. Very few, 
even of the hunters, visited these dark woods we were 
now traversing. We penetrated the dense shade, fol- 
lowing now our guide, for the boys were wholly at 
loss. Suddenly there boomed through the forest a 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. 151 

thunderous sound that waked the echoes of the entire 
region, accompanied by a shock as of a slight earth- 
quake ; then all was still as death. Startled, I seized 
Meyong by the arm, and inquired the cause of that 
noise. He replied, with a shrug, that it was K a tree 
felled by God," and crossed himself devoutly. 

A tree felled by God ! A monarch old and weather- 
beaten, that had outlived centuries of storm and hurri- 
cane, only to fall in the dead of night, when the breeze 
stirring would not have wakened a bird ! Is there not. 
something grandly awful in this ? — something that 
causes a thrill of awe and makes one regard with 
veneration the great Being who created all these won- 
ders, which are to us so great, to Him so small? It 
fell so close that, as it went crashing through the trees 
with the force of a thunderbolt, the wind created by 
its fall fanned our torches into brighter blaze. 

With indignant and frightened howls our curs broke 
away from Coryet and disappeared in the darkness, 
carrying with them our hopes of capturing the wild 
hogs of the forest. Scarcely had I recovered from 
this shock when there came borne upon the still night 
air, the faint puffing of steam, like the sobs of an en- 
gine in from a long run. It grew louder and louder 
as we advanced ; and as neither of my boys knew the 
cause of it, and the old man spoke nothing but Carib, 
to us as Hebrew, we were forced to march on in igno- 
rance, myself in doubt, the boys in trepidation, mut- 
tering prayers to the Virgin. At last our guide halted 
right on the banks of a deep ravine and threw a great 
stone into the depths below us, from which howled 
and sputtered escaping steam. Immediately upon the 
throwing of the stone there was an increased force 



152 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

given to the noise, as though it had struck in a small 
pipe and been forcibly ejected. The noise then for a 
moment ceased, and the old man beckoned us to fol- 
low quickly, as he plunged into the ravine and scram- 
bled over great rocks and across a roaring brook. 

It was long after midnight when he finally stopped 
at the side of a great rock, against which was built a 
low cabin, the sides of logs, the roof of thatch. To 
gain entrance we were obliged to penetrate a deep 
thicket of low trees which completely screened it. As 
the light from the torches revealed the dingy interior, 
I involuntarily shrank back and thought wistfully of 
the comfortable cave we had so lately left. Resigning 
myself to the bed made for me, I was soon wrapped 
in slumber. 

The old man, who had disappeared, re-appeared in 
the morning with a good repast, — yams, iguana, and 
land crabs — but all boiled. This circumstance, to- 
gether with the absence of fire, led me to investigate 
his cuisine ; and, if the reader has not already antici- 
pated it, I can tell how this poor Carib utilized the 
forces of nature and made them do his bidding. Fol- 
lowing him to the ravine, I saw, in a small opening 
in the ground whence issued puffs of steam accom- 
panied by loud reports, the source of all the noises 
of the preceding night. Near this steam-escape was 
another hole whence the water bubbled up and over, 
flowing off in a hot stream. Into this boiling spring 
my friend lowered a tannier-root fastened at the end 
of a lialine. The tannier is, when boiled, of greater 
consistency than a potato, else he would have lost his 
breakfast. In a few minutes the vegetable was com- 
pletely cooked, and he drew it out. Meat he lowered 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. 153 

down in small baskets made of tough roots. A small 
cold stream flowed near by ; and thus this rich-poor 
man had, with the game of the forest, everything he 
wanted right at hand. 

Returning to the cabin, my attention was called to 
the logs of which its walls were built. They were 
solid rosewood, which once grew wild in these for- 
ests. Could they have been transported to the coast, 
they would have brought a good price. The cabin was 
one of those built by some of the Maroons, or runaway 
slaves, some forty years ago, when they escaped to 
the mountains and formed so formidable a body that 
troops were required several years to capture and 
subdue them. The space we were in was shaped 
like the bottom of a shallow bowl, surrounded by high 
hills, the dry crater, probably, of an extinct volcano. 
There were many evidences of the residence of the 
runaways, in dismantled cabins, and gardens, and 
fruit-trees. It is thought that the wild hogs roaming 
about the surrounding hills were from their stock. 

We were much puzzled to account for the mys- 
terious visits the old man paid now and then to a 
gloomy gorge, into which he would not allow us to 
penetrate. My boys related the story, prevalent some 
ten years previously, that the old man had a lovely 
grand-daughter, only survivor of the famity he took 
with him to the woods. They thought she must be, 
at the present time, about thirty years old ; and they 
described her as being as beautiful as the old man 
was ugly, which was saying a good deal. But we 
did not at that time see this fair Carib, nor did we 
.even obtain conclusive proof of her existence. There 
was, however, much in the old man's behavior that 



154 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

gave us the impression that he had a hidden treasure 
near of some kind ; he seemed as anxious to get rid of 
us as before he had been to have us come with him. 

When the old Indian visited the gorge again, Coryet 
was on his track, at a distance not to be observed, yet 
near enough to note his movements. He followed the 
bed of the stream running through the hot-spring 
basin until it was narrowed to a rivulet flowing between 
high converging walls of rock. A narrow ledge, 
sometimes in, sometimes above the water, afforded a 
pathway through, after following which for a few 
hundred feet, the old Indian disappeared in an open- 
ing in the rock. It was just wide enough for Coryet 
to squeeze through, but soon opened into a wide 
chamber-like passage so dark that the boy was terri- 
fied and soon beat a retreat. He could hear his 
guide, however, as he scrambled over loose rocks 
and stones, penetrating deeper and deeper into the 
cavern. He lighted a match and examined the rock, 
but discovered nothing save that it seemed veined with 
sparkling metal. He brought me a fragment contain- 
ing this ore, but whether it was gold or pyrites I could 
not tell at the time. I tried to save it for examination 
when I reached home, but it was lost. Whether the 
old man took the alarm or not we could not tell, but 
he did not appear at all that day. 

In the afternoon Meyong came in with a snake, 
a species of boa, and the only one peculiar to this 
island. He called it a "Serpent tete chien? or Dog- 
head snake. It was twelve feet in length and looked 
capable of crushing a sheep to death — as indeed I 
was told it could. The little inoffensive agouti and 
birds are its prey, and it lives in holes in the earth and 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. 155 

beneath loose piles of stones. It is a terror to the 
negroes and Indians, who fear contact with its slimy 
skin more than they dread the Lance-head, a poison- 
ous and deadly serpent of Martinique. Fortunately, 
though rather abundant in the forests, they do not 
willfully attack man, and seldom do harm more than 
to pay occasional visits to the hen-roosts of sequestered 
settlements. 

This must be the serpent of which the Caribs had a 
tradition, two centuries ago, when the island was in 
their possession, and white men rarely visited it except 
as prisoners. But when a white man did visit them 
he was joyfully received, and a feast was prepared, 
of which, though in his honor, he did not partake, but 
only formed a part of it. They used to relate to 
strangers the story of a great and frightful serpent, 
which had its lair in the deep forests of the island. 
It had upon its head a brilliant stone, like a priceless 
carbuncle for brilliancy, which was usually covered 
with a movable skin like the eyelid. When it de- 
scended to the streams to drink, or when in sportive 
mood, it would withdraw this skin and flash forth such 
a dazzling light that no one could look upon the fiery 
rays without losing his sight. 

The day passed quietly and the night came on. The 
old Indian did not return, and we did not expect to 
see him again, and decided that we would make an 
early start next morning for our sea-coast camp. A 
fresh bed of leaves was made up, and we retired early 
within the cabin with rosewood walls. When it was 
quite late and very dark. I was awakened by a rustling 
among the leaves as of objects crawling over them. I 
put out my hand to ascertain what was there, but drew 



156 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

it back with a tremor of horror. It had come in contact 
with the biggest bug in the zvorld. Its back seemed 
hard as iron, and its mandibles were as long as my 
fingers. I had always boasted my immunity from bed- 
bugs, and that the greatest army of them could not 
make me afraid. But now they were coming to con- 
vince me of my mistake. I could hear them burrowing 
through the leaves, could feel them crawling over me, 
and, unable to endure it longer, sprang up with a cry 
and rushed out into the open air. The perspiration 
rolled off me, and my hands twitched nervously, for I 
was pretty thoroughly frightened. At my command, 
my boys lighted a torch and examined the leaves ; and 
when they drew out three huge beetles almost as large 
as my hand, and I stood regarding them with horror, 
they burst into fits of laughter. 

"Ah! Monsieur very fear, he ''fraid jumbie, he 
'fraid razor-grinder." 

"What do you call them?" 

" Person say he f razor-grinder.' " 

"Does he grind razors?" 

"Oh, no ! mats he make noise like he make to grind." 

" Hark zat noise ! " said Meyong, raising his hand to 
command silence. Through the forest came a sharp, 
whizzing sound, like that produced by the wheel of 
the perambulating razor and knife grinder. 

"Zat make by heself." 

"How does he make it?" 

His answer was to this effect : The beetle is pro- 
vided with two long mandibles, articulating like the 
thumb' and forefinger, placed immediately above the 
mouth. They are smooth and hard, and furnished 
with protuberances, or notched, while the upper man- 



158 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

dible is lined on its under surface with velvety hairs. 
The beetle would seize hold of a small branch of a 
tree, exactly as we would grasp it between the thumb 
and forefinger. Then it would, with its wings, whirl 
itself round and round, slowly at first, but increasing, 
so rapidly as to produce a continuous buzz or whir. 
This it would keep up until the limb was severed. 

The reason for this I could not find out. The beetle 
lives on rotten wood, it is thought, and in cutting 
into these branches it may be in search of food. But 
the most plausible reason is, that it is calling its mate. 
This is strengthened by the fact that the females are 
not furnished with these mandibles. It flies high in 
the air among the trees at night ; it burrows in the 
ground, beneath leaves and in decayed wood, in the 
daytime. Being strictly nocturnal in its habits, it is 
seldom found, unless, as in the present instance, it 
goes in search of the collector. 

It is the largest known beetle in the world, the 
specimen in my possession being six and one quarter 
inches in length. The only species approaching it in 
size is the Goliath-beetle of the African coast, which 
is broader than this, but not so long-. Guiana is the 
home of this beetle, and he has never been found out 
of South America except in this one island of Do- 
minica. Well is he called the Hercules, for that 
is his name, Dynastes Hercules ; and modestly he 
bears his title, for he does not presume upon his size 
and strength to annoy man or ill-treat his insect neigh- 
bors. He is a strict vegetarian, and leads a happy, 
careless life among the tree-tops at night, and upon 
the ground during the day. 

The only specimen I was able to bring with me 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. 159 

to America was a full-grown male. The proboscis 
and whole forward part are jet-black, the legs and 
under parts rich brown, the wing-cases, which cover 
the back and sides, greenish-olive dotted and streaked 
with black. It is altogether one of the most attractive 
entomological specimens I secured during my trip. 

Further search among the leaves revealed several 
centipedes, which were more to be dreaded than the 
beetles, as their bites will throw one into a fever. A 
scorpion, also, was turned out from his lurking-place 
beneath a log. Both these pests prefer old dwellings 
and decaying ruins for their abodes, and though not 
so abundant in Dominica as in Martinique and St. 
Lucia, are often the cause of alarm, and sometimes 
of sickness, to the inhabitants. Their bites rarely 
prove fatal. 

To escape annoyance from these insects, I always, 
when practicable, slept in my hammock ; they did 
not then have so open a field, and I only ran the 
risk of having one drop from the roof or a branch 
above me. 

Owing to the disturbance just mentioned, we were 
up long before daylight, and started on the homeward 
trail before the woods were fairly alight. The " Sun- 
set bird " (Myiarchns Obcri) sent his tremulous cry 
through the forest, as we turned our backs upon the 
boiling springs and commenced descending a gentle 
plain well studded with trees. We had probably seen 
the last of our Indian friend, and though we felt rather 
conscience-stricken at leaving him without a farewell, 
we reflected that his seclusion was of his own 
seeking. 

Our yams and tanniers were quite finished, and we 



l6o CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

were obliged to use as substitute the seeds of a species 
of palm, a tall and slender tree with drooping leaves. 
It is a species not yet described, I think, and is either 
a cocos or ageonoma. The seeds are dark and shining, 
and grow in clusters at the bases of the leaf-stalks. 
They are edible, and constitute an important portion 
of the food of the forest Caribs. 

A beautiful plant, which nearly covered the trees 
along the streams, was the Hillia longifolia ; it had 
white, star-shaped flowers, and glossy laurel-like 
leaves. Every old stump and decaying tree was 
covered with a fuchsia-like plant with lovely pink and 
scarlet flowers, the Allofilectus cristatus, which en- 
veloped every disfigured tree in a garment of beauty. 

We reached without adventure the great river, and 
followed it down to its mouth, where was an abandoned 
plantation in the possession of negroes. A dilapidated 
hut was pointed out to me as being occupied by a 
famous sorceress, a priestess of Obeah, who could 
give one a charm that would kill one's enemy, or cause 
a robber to restore stolen property. Her fame extended 
beyond the confines of the island, and she was visited 
by many credulous negroes from other places. 

Obeah, a relic of African witchcraft, has strong 
hold upon the ignorant blacks and Indians. Salibia, 
the valley in which I camped for more than a month, 
was once the stronghold of the priests of Obeah. For 
years they held sway there, and many people are 
supposed to have been killed by their poisons. The 
laws of the English government are severe in its 
punishment, but it ?s practiced to a greater extent than 
is generally known. 

It was the middle of the afternoon when we reached 



A MIDNIGHT MARCH. l6l 

the fording-place ; the heat had been increasing since 
ten in the morning, when first we were brought to feel 
its force. Having eaten little that day, I was weak at 
noon, and experienced violent pains in the head. On 
the river bank I halted and would gladly have slept, 
but my boys urged me on. The water was only about 
knee-deep, and I waded in ; half-way across, the 
current nearly swept me off my feet, and I grew faint 
and dizzy, and had barely reached the bank when I 
fell to the ground. 

Beneath a guava bush my boys stretched me out 
and watched while I slept ; and at dark they awoke 
me and assisted me to a house. Here the kind mistress 
attended me for nearly a week, until the fever had 
somewhat abated, when, leaving my collections and 
camping equipments to be forwarded by Meyong, 
I took a coasting vessel from a near port for the 
Caribbean coast. 
ii 



1 62 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A CRUISE IN THE HURRICANE SEASON. 

AN EXPERIMENT IN COFFEE CULTURE. — THE PEST OF THE 
COFFEE PLANT. — LIBERIAN COFFEE VERSUS MOCHA. — AN 
AFRICAN DISEASE. — GATHERING IN THE SICK. — DOWN THE 
CARIBBEAN COAST. — THE FLAME-TREE. — THE ORCHARD OF 
LIMES. — PROFITS OF LIME CULTURE. — THE MAROON PARTY. 

— THE STAMPEDE. — FAREWELL TO DOMINICA. — CORAL IS- 
LANDS. — AN IMMENSE GAME PRESERVE. — THE " DOCTOR." — 
THE JIGGERS. — NEW BIRDS. — A WEARY VOYAGE. — SEASONS 
OF THE TROPICS. — TEMPESTS. — CALMS. — PROVISIONS EX- 
HAUSTED. — TURKEY OR JACKASS. — SHARK. — ODORS OF 
SPICES. — THE TORNADO. — HURRICANE BIRDS. — PITONS OF 
ST. LUCIA. — ST. VINCENT. — PALM AVENUE. — THE SPA. — 
HOSPITABLE PEOPLE. — BASALTIC CLIFFS. — RICHMOND VALE. 

— FALLS OF BALLEINE. — THE WATERSPOUT. 

A MILE from the town of Roseau are the cliffs 
of St. Aramant, above which is the snug little 
country seat of Dr. Imray, one of the oldest resi- 
dents of Dominica. A friend and correspondent of 
Sir Joseph Hooker, .he is an ardent botanist, and has 
several of the native plants named in his honor. For 
a generation, the good doctor ministered to the sick 
and afflicted ; for more than thirty years he was the 
leading physician of the island. At last, feeling the 
need of rest, well advanced in years, though in robust 
health, he delegated his authority and practice, with 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 1 63 

all needful pills and potions, to a most worthy suc- 
cessor, Dr. Nicholls, a young Englishman, full of 
love for his profession and energy in the practice of 
its duties, and with the aged doctor's "botanical pre- 
dilections. These two gentlemen, then, active in 
everything pertaining to the welfare of the island, 
cultured and with scientific tastes, are of inestimable 
value to the inhabitants, and a blessing to strangers. 

Dr. Imray is devoting all his time to the reintroduc- 
tion of coffee into the island. Years ago it was cul- 
tivated to such an extent that it acquired a name and 
reputation ; in the latter part of the last century there 
were over two hundred coffee plantations, giving an 
annual yield of three hundred thousand pounds ; but 
with the abolition of slavery its culture languished, 
valuable coffee estates were abandoned, and at pres- 
ent the island does not produce sufficient for its 
own consumption. About forty years ago there 
appeared a blight upon the coffee-plant that ruined 
whole crops and aided in the abandonment of its 
culture. This was in the shape of a coccus, a scale 
insect that fixed itself upon the leaves and buds, 
causing them to shrivel. This undoubtedly came of 
neglect, and increased until it acquired the mastery 
over the entire island. In Guadeloupe they have the 
scale insect, but it has never gained ascendency over 
the planters, as more attention has been paid to the 
trees. Acting upon the theory that the leaf of the 
Mocha variety was too tender to resist the attacks of 
the insect, Dr. Imray has successfully introduced the 
Liberian variety, the epidermis of the leaves being 
thicker and tougher. At the time of my visit he had 
a little plantation of trees about three years old, some 
of which were in flower and bearing. 



164 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Upon my return to Roseau I was suffering from a 
low fever that would not be shaken off; and upon the 
advice of the two doctors I decided to rest for a month, 
either in the mountains or at some point on the west- 
ern shore. The young doctor was going down the 
island to visit a distant town, and it was decided by 
my friends that I should occupy a seat in his boat 
until he reached Battalie, Dr. Imray's lime orchard 
on the Caribbean coast. 

Aside from a large and constantly increasing prac- 
tice, Dr. Nicholls was burdened with the duty, al- 
most self-imposed, of medical superintendent of the 
Yaws hospital. The name yaws, or yaw, is of Afri- 
can origin, and is said to be derived from the resem- 
blance of the fungoid ulcers or tumors, which cover the 
skin in this disease, to a raspberry, or strawberry, of 
which yaw is the native African name. To present 
a description of this disease, unknown in America 
and Europe, I quote from the doctor's annual report 
for 1878. 

"The disease Frambesia, or Yaws, was introduced 
into the West Indies by negro slaves imported from 
Africa. The date of its ingress into Dominica is un- 
known, but it existed in the island early in the present 
century. It did not, however, make any great head- 
way before emancipation, for each estate of consider- 
able size had its ' Yaws-house,' and the infected 
patients were there segregated and treated by a nurse, 
under the direction of a medical attendant. Upon the 
abolition of slavery, and the consequent impoverish- 
ment of many estates and the total abandonment of 
others, the medical surveillance of the negroes came 
to an end, and the number of persons affected with 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 165 

yaws increased considerably. The rugged conforma- 
tion of the country of Dominica, the smallness of the 
population as compared with the area, the facilities 
for ' squatting,' and the absence, until recently, of a 
medical service, all tended to favor the spread of the 
disease. About eight years ago the number of cases 
had increased to such an alarming extent that meas- 
ures were taken for the repression of the disease. 
Hospitals were established, yaws patients were ad- 
mitted and cured, and it was hoped that the disease 
would be extinguished ; but the system adopted was 
stopped too soon, and the malady reappeared and 
spread with great rapidity. The government, in a 
few years, had to grapple with a contagious disease, 
which was present in every district of the country, and 
which held hundreds of victims in its grasp. 

" Fortunately the disease is one amenable to medical 
treatment, and the yaws hospitals, now in full work- 
ing order, are fast removing the blot which has ex- 
isted upon the public health for so many }?ears. That 
the disease will be finally eliminated from Dominica 
is disbelieved in by many, but I see no reason why 
this desirable event should not really occur. In 
former days the disease existed in all the islands of 
the West Indies, but now it is confined to few." 

Empowered by the government to gather in and 
isolate all persons found afflicted with the yaws, un- 
dismayed by opposition from the ignorant or by the 
accumulation of filth in these Augean stables, this 
young enthusiast went to work with a zeal and intelli- 
gence that presaged success, to eradicate the disease. 
Under his direction the police of the island scoured 
the neighborhood of the villages, and brought into 



l66 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the hospitals the filthiest offscourings of humanity. 
Of course there was much difficulty in the way, not 
only from the patients themselves, who preferred 
hugging this living death and communicating it to 
others, to separation from their friends, but from rabid 
philanthropists of the " Exeter-Hall " type, who saw in 
this an infringement upon the negro's liberty. 

The disease is engendered and propagated by a 
filthy mode of living and insufficient diet ; hence, the 
most important agents in effecting a cure are cleanli- 
ness and good living. No one would suppose the 
natives would object to that, but they do, and neglect 
no opportunity for escape from the hospitals ; thus 
the doctor's position is one of thankless labor and 
vigilance. 

It was a five-hours' row to Prince Rupert's, and 
half that to Battalie. We left Roseau in a long dug- 
out, rowed by four men and guided by a cockswain, 
and rapidly glided along the Caribbean coast. Re- 
clining beneath an arched canvas, we could look out 
upon a swiftly-gliding shore, green sugar plantations, 
bluff headlands, narrow valleys. Being June, when 
all the flowering trees are in bloom, and when the 
fruits are ripe and ripening, it was a pleasure to note 
the vegetation. Conspicuous above all foliage was the 
Flamboyant, the " flame-tree," with its broad umbrella- 
shaped top, one mass of flaming crimson. Without 
a leaf at the beginning of the season, its twigs and 
branches are covered with gorgeous flowers. So far 
as you can distinguish any object on shore, you see the 
flame-tree, its bright coloring making it as prominent 
at a distance as bright-plumaged birds, which, as in 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 167 

the case of the " pink curlew," I have recognized when 
mere specks in space. 

At dark we entered a crescent-shaped bay and ran 
the boat upon a pebbly beach, which was pierced by 
two rivers as they entered the sea. Overhanging them 
were cocoa palms, shading them almost to the sands, 
while sea-side grapes hung above wave-worn rocks 
and rounded pebbles, and a forest of lime-trees filled 
a narrow valley enclosed between high cliffs. The 
manager of the estate welcomed us with a good 
dinner and comfortable beds in the doctor's own 
house, which always remained ready for his occu- 
pancy, though he rarely visited it. The next morn- 
ing we whipped the streams with poor success, and 
attacked the sea-birds with scanty returns ; in the 
afternoon, my fever returning, and the doctor continu- 
ing his journey, both fish and birds had a rest. 

The valley of Battalie is one great field of lime-trees 
— a smooth sea of verdure — hiding beneath its sur- 
face golden fruit that is constantly dropping to the 
earth, and being carried to the stone m'll beneath the 
cliff. Twenty years ago Dr. Imray conceived the 
plan of converting a poorly-paying sugar plantation 
into an orchard of limes, and he thus made of a nar- 
row valley, riven from gigantic rocks and strewn with 
volcanic bowlders, a garden of profit and delight. 
The majority of the trees are fifteen years old ; they 
first bear at three years of age, and yield good crops 
at five years. Since the first full crop he has re- 
alized a large income from these trees, his manager 
informing me that during two seasons the returns 
amounted to two thousand pounds sterling each. 
The trees are thickly planted so as to shade the 



l68 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ground, and after they acquire their growth need no 
clearing beneath. 

A corps of boys and girls gather the limes as they 
fall to the earth — they are never picked — and carry 
them to the mill, where they are passed between two 
upright rollers, such as were in use when the sugar 
cane was raised there. The expressed juice is con- 
ducted to evaporating pans and boiled down to the 
consistency of molasses — to a density of one-tenth — 
and then run into fifty-gallon hogsheads for shipment 
to England. It was worth, in 1877, about twenty 
pounds sterling per hogshead, and has brought thirty 
pounds ; and the plantation has yielded from seventy 
to eighty hogsheads in a season. 

The juice is used in making citric acid, and is 
shipped in its concentrated form to reduce freight. It 
would seem possible to further reduce this item of ex- 
pense by the complete crystallization of the juice. 
Such an experiment has been tried in Florida, though 
without complete success. There is not there a suffi- 
cient quantity of limes, though, from the experience 
of Dr. Imray, it w r ould seem more profitable to 
raise limes than oranges. I do not, however, think 
the lime will nourish so luxuriantly, nor produce so 
much juice, in Florida, as in the rich soil of the 
West Indian islands. The trees are without fruit 
during two months only in the year — February and 
March — and at other seasons are fragrant with fruit 
in various stages of growth. 

One day, two or three weeks after my arrival, the 
priest of a neighboring village, Pdre Michel, came 
over to the plantation for a little recreation, and 
gathered some of the people together for a ^artie 



THE HURRICANE SEASQN. 169 

riviere. By different names do the residents of these 
islands call these gatherings in the open air, which 
in other places are denominated picnics. Partie 
riviere, the French name, has a suggestiveness 
about it that picnic has not ; and to go on a " maroon 
party," as they sometimes style it, transports one in 
imagination at once to the wild forests. 

In the afternoon we were all gathered at the upper 
end of the valley, beneath a great mango ; cloths were 
spread on the ground, and upon them were placed 
our eatables : roast pig, chickens, and vegetables, 
with ale, claret, and sherry. The pere and myself 
were the only members of the party who were not, in 
a manner more or less remote, connected with the im- 
mortal Ham ; but that did not mar our enjoyment of 
the festivities. Before the spread had been well dis- 
cussed, a sudden shower came down with fury — as 
showers are apt to do in the summer season — sus- 
pending operations and driving us to shelter. As we 
were on the upper bank of the river, and the stepping- 
stones were covered a foot deep in fifteen minutes, we 
were all obliged to wade the turbid stream, in great 
discomfort. 

These June showers, though lacking the force of 
those of the later months of the year, are nevertheless 
of frequent occurrence. They warned me away from 
an island so mountainous, and but a week passed be- 
fore I was speeding north to an island of lesser eleva- 
tion, and consequently less rainfall. 

Furnished with letters of introduction from the presi- 
dent of Dominica, Mr. Eldredge, I visited the islands 
of Barbuda and Antigua, spending there two months, 
shooting deer, pigeons, doves, and wild guinea-fowl. 



I70 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

These islands are of coral formation, and the former 
is a perfect preserve, being abundantly stocked with 
game. Two gentlemen lease it from the crown, 
though it formerly belonged to the ancient Codrington 
family. Its horses are celebrated throughout the is- 
lands, being descended from imported Arab stock. 

The climate of Antigua is perceptibly warmer than 
that of the mountainous islands, though a cool breeze 
freshens a great portion of the day. It is hot in the 
morning from seven to ten, when a breeze springs up. 
At noon it is intensely hot, but in the shade the cool 
sea-breeze makes it bearable. Another oppressive 
spell is near sunset, before the evening winds set in ; 
but by eight o'clock the air has cooled, and the nights 
are endurable. In July and August, when I was there, 
there were frequent showers ; rain fell for an hour or 
two quite unexpectedly, and as quickly ceased. The 
wind blows nearly always from the east, and when it 
changes to the west, a hurricane may be expected. 

In Antigua, alone, I suffered from mosquitoes, and 
was obliged to protect myself by a net. Fleas, also, 
disturbed my rest at night ; and not the universal flea 
only, but a cousin of his, which can "discount" the 
common insect largely. I allude to the "jigger," 
or chegoe, which, not content, like his relative, with 
a hop, skip, and a bite, penetrates the skin, and lays 
its eggs beneath the surface. 

I awoke one morning with an itching of my toes, 
which frequent rubbing failed to allay; and examina- 
tion revealed four white tumors. They were as large 
as peas, and in the center of each was a little black 
speck. Ignorant at that time of the existence of such 
creatures, I called my boy, William, who at once pro- 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 171 

nounced them jiggers. How to remove them was the 
next question. William soon settled that, for he called 
in the first old negress that happened to be passing, 
and she turned those jiggers out of their nests with an 
adroitness that showed long practice. 

Care must be taken that none of the eggs remain in 
the wound, as the larvae hatched from them burrow 
into the flesh, and eventually create painful ulcers. 
The eggs and insect are contained in a sac, which 
must be turned out with a pin or needle with great 
care, and the cavity filled with tobacco ashes to de- 
stroy any remaining germ. After I had got rid of my 
unwelcome tenants, there was a hole in each toe large 
enough to contain a humming-bird's Qgg- This, my 
first experience with the fiulex penetrans, was so satis- 
factory that I carefully guarded against the develop- 
ment of any more eggs of those loathsome insects. 
A few hours are sufficient to give the jigger a hiding- 
place, and as the sensation he causes is a rather 
pleasant itching only, for a time, he is sometimes not 
discovered until a painful sore is formed. The ne- 
groes are very negligent in attending to these sores, 
which increase to such an extent as to endanger their 
limbs ; negroes with all their toes eaten away are 
daily met with, and I have seen several who have lost 
a leg from this same cause. 

It was my intention to visit St. Kitts, with a view 
to obtaining some specimens of monkeys residing 
there, but an invitation to an island in another direc- 
tion caused me to abandon it. Though St. Kitts may 
be very interesting in many other respects, it is espe- 
cially so to a naturalist, as it contains great numbers 
of monkeys, being one of three islands in the Antilles 



172 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

honored by these quadrupeds as their abode. Barba- 
dos is said to have very few, and Grenada has large 
troops of them. Those of St. Kitts are numerous and 
do much injury to the crops. It is related that they 
have access to a passage under the sea, to Nevis, a 
distance of six miles. 

Before leaving Antigua I met an old acquaintance, 
a dentist, who had sailed in the vessel in which I took 
passage from New York, and who had left me at Mar- 
tinique, the first island of the chain at which we touched. 
Though he had never taken a degree, he was gener- 
ally known as " The Doctor." He was an apt manip- 
ulator of the forceps, and had accumulated, during 
the six months we were separated, twenty-five hun- 
dred dollars, extracted from the innocent islanders. 
Now, the doctor was a genius. He had a genius for 
making money, and a special tact for taking care of 
number one. Leaving New York with but sixty dol- 
lars and his stock in trade, he landed in the West 
Indies with his cash greatly augmented, and with the 
captain, mate, cook, in fact the whole crew, deeply 
in his debt. That I escaped with a whole tooth in 
my head I attribute to some special interposition of 
Providence. The doctor's period of sojourn on ship- 
board may be divided into two portions : that in which 
he was pulling, or " fixin'," teeth, and that in which he 
was sea-sick. He was happy in the exercise of the 
former, and unhappy in that of the latter. When the 
doctor appears on deck with a particularly happy 
expression on his countenance, and polishing some- 
body's molar on the lapel of his coat, beware of him ! 
The whole crew would then shudder with apprehen- 
sion. 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 



173 



The doctor and I went on shore. We climbed the 
paved streets and descended again to the beautiful 
"Jardin dcs Plantes. On our way the doctor indulged 
in a free flow of that happy humor peculiar to the 
Western Yankee (for we are all Yankees in those 
islands). We met boys and boys, boys by dozens and 
boys by scores, and some girls ; but the very first 
group that drew our attention and provoked an out- 
burst of the doctor's 
ever-ready wit, con- 
sisted of boys. 

"I say, young man, 
pull down your vest !" 

This was addressed 
to a ragged little 
darky with beaming 
face and bright eyes, 
the center of a bunch 
of the most ragged 
and dirty gamins we 
ever beheld. There 
was not a whole ar- 
ticle of clothing fur- 
niture among them. 
If one had a shirt, he 
had no pantaloons ; 

and the one that boasted the latter, had the least of 
the former. There was not even an apology for a 
single whole garment in the crowd, yet every mem- 
ber of it was as blissfully unconscious of the gro- 
tesque appearance he made as were the doctor and 
myself aware of it. But the most glaringly conspic- 
uous feature of the collection was a huge vest worn 




A Group of Gamins. 



174 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

by the brightest and sauciest of the five — a very 
grandfather among vests, which, descending to the 
urchin's thighs, left but a scanty drapery of shirt vis- 
ible beneath. 

We sailed away from Antigua one evening, the doc- 
tor's store increased by nearly eight hundred dollars ; 
mine, by one new bird. This was in September, the 
very worst month of the year for travel. Nearly every 
craft that sailed these seas was drawn up on shore to 
await the close of the " hurricane season ; " and this 
one in which we had taken passage was on her way 
to Barbados, hoping to escape a blow until she could 
make shelter there. 

The " hurricane season " extends from the middle 
of July to the middle of October, and is at its height 
in the autumnal equinox. It is a season of calms ; 
the sea is deceitfully quiet, and the wind variable. 
During the greater part of the year the wind blows 
from the east or north-east in the well-known "trades ;" 
but at this season it dies away, coming in puffs from 
different quarters. The winds that precede the hurri- 
canes usually commence blowing from the west or 
north-west, and increase in strength until they acquire 
that terrific force that devastates islands and destroys 
in a few hours the work of years. They shoot through 
the air in different directions, sometimes from above, 
perpendicular to the earth ; and woe to the vessel 
caught abroad at such a time. 

In this connection I may speak of the seasons of 
the year, which are not so distinctly marked as is 
commonly supposed. The first three months of the 
year are generally fine ; they constitute the best por- 
tion of the hunting season, when the woods are driest 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 175 

and coolest, and the birds in perfect plumage. In 
April commence light showers, which sometimes ex- 
tend through June, and are of daily occurrence. The 
heat increases, and the months of August and Sep- 
tember are the hottest, as they are the sickliest, of 
the year. August ushers in the season of storms 
and hurricanes, when the calm intervals are almost 
insupportable on account of the heat. The last three 
months of the year constitute the season of the great 
rains, when for days together the rain falls heavily. 
These are the months for endemic fevers. Though 
the storms are frequently accompanied by thunder 
and lightning, I did not see, during my stay of nearly 
two years, such furious displays as I have witnessed 
in the North. 

We drifted south of Antigua without a breeze. The 
morning and the afternoon saw Antigua's hills not 
far away; and the long, hot day was spent upon 
a motionless sea, without a breath of wind to fan 
our flapping sails. At sunset Guadeloupe's windward 
island was in sight — a low, flat land, with misty 
mountains far to westward. The triple peak of Mont- 
serrat showed black against a glowing sky ; the sun 
in its descent drew a pathway of gold along the sil- 
very sea and darted into our faces its fiery beams. 

" The western wave was all aflame ; 
The clay was well-nigh done." 

In heat and discomfort the day went out ; but dark- 
ness had scarcely enveloped us when the sea began to 
dimple with little wavelets, that increased and lapped 
with refreshing sound against our vessel's sides ; then 
the sails felt the coming of the evening breeze, and 



176 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

lay well over to leeward, and we moved slowly on 
our course. To avoid being becalmed under the lee 
of Guadeloupe, our captain had taken the longer route 
to windward, and we were now crossing the pathway 
of Columbus when he first approached these islands 
of the Caribbees. Next morning, when we went 
"about" for Marie Galante, the only island in sight 
was that lone rock of Desirade — the "desired island" 
of Columbus, when he was expecting to discover land. 

Our captain was a negro, black as his African an- 
cestor and without a brutish instinct the less. Plainly, 
he had missed his calling, which was to labor in the 
cane-fields beneath the lash of insolence-rebuking 
overseer. His provisions of yam and fish gave out on 
the evening of the second day, and my private store, 
also, failed me. The only meat on board was in 
living shape — a turkey and a jackass. That night 
the turkey died, welcoming death as a relief from 
sore disease. The jackass, patient for a day, w r axed 
wroth as time passed on without food or drink, and 
broke the stillness of the second night with discordant 
brays. 

The deck was crowded with sable passengers ; the 
"cabin" was filled high with bags of coffee and guano 
and sundry boxes, and at the farther end was a stifled 
room in which was a berth allotted by the captain to 
me as a first-class passenger. Late in the evening I 
worked my way with difficulty to the room to retire. 
It was very dark and very evil-smelling, and I reached 
my .hand up to open a little slide above the bunk, for 
air and light. It came in contact with something for- 
eign, which, upon being shaken, gave signs of life 
and alarm, and a woman's voice demanded what I 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 177 

wanted. Retreating hastily, I inquired of the captain 
if there were not some mistake, and he replied that the 
berth was mine, and he would have the woman re- 
moved. She was one of several, who, having only 
deck passage, had been allowed to lie down in the' 
cabin on the bags of coffee, as the deck was damp. 
Waiting a little while, I again went down ; and my 
anger and dismay may be imagined when I found 
another colored female in the place of the first. Again 
I sought counsel of the captain ; again was the cabin 
boy dispatched to warn these interlopers out. Allow- 
ing another interval to elapse, I again descended, re- 
moved shoes and coat, and sprang lightly into the 
bunk, ready to fall asleep in an instant. As I alighted, 
a cry of pain saluted me ; I became conscious that 
another of those detestable women had usurped my 
place, and fled quickly to the deck. The cabin boy 
rescued my shoes and coat, and I sat down upon a 
coil of rope, resolved to brave the dangers of the night- 
damp rather than those of that vile hole below. 

The third morning brought with it hunger, and a 
drink of black coffee. Later, the turkey, having had 
the feathers duly plucked from his bones, was placed 
before us ; but my regard for the turkey was too great 
to allow me to eat, and I drew my belt the tighter, 
and looked wistfully toward the purple clouds that I 
knew were mountains, south of us. The day passed, 
and in the afternoon the sailors caught a shark. Hun- 
ger had now overcome all scruples, and I ate with rel- 
ish of the coarse flesh that at any other time would 
have been disgusting. Another night came, and, 
warned by the experience of the previous one, I spread 
my blanket on deck and slept soundly, though we had 



178 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

several heavy squalls that careened our vessel alarm- 
ingly. 

At daylight I awoke, dreaming of coffee and lime 
groves, for I recognized in the land-breeze that came 
to us the odor of spices and the freshness of earth, 
and knew that we were under the lee of Dominica. 
We were off Prince Rupert's Bay — a secure harbor 
for a fleet — with the town of Prince Rupert's, hidden 
in cocoa palms, lying in a fever-stricken valley. We 
were again becalmed, and night found us just entering 
the bay of Roseau, with a sea dashing over the sea- 
wall and jetty too violently to allow us to land. 

" We expect you at your old quarters," wrote my 
good friend William Stedman ; and one of his do- 
mestics shouldered my trunk and conveyed it to his 
hospitable mansion. 

What a delight it was to be back among these gen- 
erous people ! Whatever the characteristics of English 
or Scotch at home, they soon acquire, in the West 
Indies, a feeling for a stranger fellow-man that is 
wondrous kind. It seemed like getting home again, 
this return to Dominica after a few months' absence, 
and I would gladly have remained among my friends 
of the coast; I was soon in the mountains, however, 
searching for some birds of which I had heard, and 
was rewarded by the discovery of several new varieties. 

Returning to the coast after ten days' absence, I 
was caught in a thunder-gust, the rain coming from 
three ways at once, out of three converging gorges ; 
the path was flooded in a few minutes, and the river 
roaring loudly and seething like a caldron. The 
storm passed and hurried on over the town, drench- 
ing it, and swept out over the sea, where it remained 



THE HURRICANE SEASON. 179 

visible a long time as a heavy cloud. I found my 
friend putting up the " hurricane shutters " to his 
windows, which overlooked the bay directly above the 
sea-wall. The sea was agitated, and a dense cloud 
of mist came hurrying up from the south-west with a 
muffled roar. For a long time we were in suspense ; 
the sun went down red and blinking behind a wall 
of vapor. The storm passed us without doing damage, 
though later intelligence reached us that it had struck 
the island of Grenada and toppled over three hundred 
houses. 

Immediately preceding the hurricanes, there arrive 
off the Caribbean coast vast numbers of birds called, 
from their cries, "Twa-oo." They are said to be the 
harbingers of hurricanes, and only appear during the 
calms, immediately before a storm. They cover the 
water in large flocks, and come in from the desolate 
sandy islands where they breed. They are the sooty 
tern (the Sterna fuliginosa), but are known to the 
natives as "Hurricane-birds."' When I arrived in 
Dominica the sea was black with them, but on the 
morning after the storm they had disappeared, to a 
bird, as completely as though blown into another 
sphere. 

Steaming south, past Martinique, and by the way 
of Barbados, I found myself, one morning early in 
October, under the Pitons of St. Lucia, two pointed 
mountains rising out of the sea, the most beautiful and 
curious of any in these islands. They are about six 
hundred feet in height, wooded to their summits, and 
dark green. St. Lucia is famous as being the home 
of the infamous snake known as the " Iron Lance," — 
of which I speak more at length in my description of 



l8o CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Martinique. Poisonous and venomous, it has yearly 
many victims, and is more feared than the fever, 
for which Castries, St. Lucia's principal town, is 
celebrated. 

Crossing the channel south of St. Lucia, we arrived 
in the afternoon off the northern end of St. Vincent, 
which, from the steamer's deck, five miles off shore, 
appeared a dream of an island, suspended between 
sky and sea, yet solid and compact. As we glided 
through the blue waters, and the afternoon sun fell 
upon the island, we could view it from northern to 
southern end, one "block of hazy, purple cloud, an 
immense amethyst, with shades and depths that varied 
as the sun lighted up the yellow plains and dark 
mountain-tops, and sought to penetrate the sombre 
valleys and ravines. Behind a curving beach a little 
town showed out, with red-tiled roofs gleaming from 
beneath thick groves of palms, through which a church 
pointed its spire skyward. There were no outlying 
rocks or islands, no jagged cliffs or jutting promon- 
tories, but, springing at once from the sea, every angle 
sharp and clear-cut, the island presented the appear- 
ance of a huge, opaque crystal. Though twenty- 
five miles in length, it appeared so small that one 
might fancy he could row around it in an hour 
or two. 

At five in the afternoon we entered Kingston harbor, 
a bay open to the west and south-west, deep and spa- 
cious enough to float a navy. A sandy beach curves 
from headland to headland, and upon the northern 
promontory, six hundred feet above the bay, is perched 
a fort with massive walls, now used as a light-house 
and signal station. A jetty affords a landing-place 



r 

ST. VINCENT. -**. l8l 

from the steamer, fronting which and the sea is the 
police station, a fine, large building of stone, the best 
public building in the smaller English islands. A 
broad street borders the bay, and two more run parallel 
to it farther back, until the bordering amphitheatre of 
hills prevents further building. Streets intersect these 
at right angles and end at the base line of the hills, 
save three or four which traverse the valleys to estates 
among- the mountains, and two that ascend the hills 
and extend around either shore to windward and lee- 
ward. Valleys run up from the bay far into the moun- 
tains, and the various spurs of hills increase in height 
as they recede from shore, so that Kingston and its bay 
are half encircled by a range of hills and mountains, 
above and around whose summits the clouds continu- 
ally play. 

The highest peak is Morne St. Andrews ; rising 
to the east of it, and commanding the town, is a high, 
steep hill known as Dorsetshire Height, crested by a 
ruined fort. When the Caribs, in the last century, 
had overrun the island to windward, they swarmed 
upon this hill, attacked the fort, made prisoners the 
garrison, and were dislodged by soldiers from the 
town only after a desperate fight. There are a few 
old cannon remaining on the heights, but dismounted 
and imbedded in the earth. Most of them were 
bought by an enterprising speculator, during the late 
war between North and South, and sold to one party 
or the other. 

The sunset view from here is superb. Conspicuous 
are the palmistes, or cabbage palms ; one house is 
encircled by them, a white house with bright red 
roof; they raise themselves erect in clumps of a score 



l82 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

or more, in rows like white pillars with dark green 
caps, and stand in relief upon all the hills. A mile 
from town is an avenue of seventy, which, though 
its symmetry is marred by the loss of some by hurri- 
canes, is still a beautiful sight. 

Three miles from town, one mile from the palm 
avenue in Arno's Vale, is a noted spa ; from a hole 
six inches in diameter gushes out a volume of water 
impregnated with salts that give it value as a medici- 
nal drink. It is equal in strength and beneficial effects 
to any water from the spas of Europe. It is averred 
that the water is more strongly impregnated, and that 
the flow is stronger, on the coming full of the moon. 
Water bottled at that time will sometimes break the 
strongest case. 

When it became known that I was to visit the far- 
ther coast, I was furnished with letters by proprietors 
to the managers of their estates in different portions 
of the island. These were given me mainly by Mr. 
Porter, part-owner of a great number of sugar-estates ; 
for the pleasure of whose acquaintance I was indebted 
to the U. S. consul, Mr. Hughes. So efficient were 
these letters, and so hospitable were the managers of 
the many estates traversed, that I made the complete 
circuit of the island on borrowed horses. When it is 
considered that sometimes my excursions were into 
the mountains over trails so rough that no one but a 
West Indian or South American would think of cross- 
ing them, and that I sometimes had a horse several 
days, the extent of their kindness maybe appreciated. 

The coast along the entire western shore is pictu- 
resque in the extreme, with volcanic rocks worn into 
caves, beautiful bays and broad valleys. Near Cum- 



ST. VINCENT. 183 

berland is an arched rock which bears the appellation 
of " Hafey's Breeches ; " and in the valley is a huge 
cliff of columnar basalt, both of which are interest- 
ing to view. The manager of Richmond estate, Mr. 
Evelyn, received me kindly, and through his solicita- 
tions, and by the rain which fell in torrents every day, 
I was detained beneath his hospitable roof for nearly 
a week. 

In a small boat I visited, one day, the Falls of 
Balleine, which are secluded in a deep gorge, about 
sixty feet high, and interesting. On this trip I was 
favored with a spectacle rarely seen even in this land 
of storms. It was a waterspout which formed over 
against the Pitons of St. Lucia, — a bulk of black 
clouds like an inverted funnel, sailing beneath denser 
masses above. It swept along with its tip trailing 
just above the waves, £n elongated, spiral-pointed 
sack, until it met the sea ; then the water was drawn 
up to it, forming a mighty pillar, spreading at base and 
summit, and joining black sea with inky clouds. A 
few moments it remained thus, then melted away, 
leaving only great banks of clouds, out of which came 
wind and rain. Seen across an angry sea, those 
cloud-pillars, with the picturesque Pitons as a back- 
ground, were most impressive. They appeared 
at one time as if about to sweep down upon and 
ingulf us. 



184 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XII. 

A CAMP IN A CRATER. 

THE LAST OF THE VOLCANOES. — THE SOUFRIERE OF ST. VINCENT. 
— THE " INVISIBLE BIRD." — ASCENDING THE VOLCANO. — THE 
" DRY RIVER." — BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF ST. VINCENT. — THE OLD 
CRATER. — THE NEW CRATER. — THE LAKE IN THE BOWELS OF 
THE EARTH. — IN THE CAVE. — SUNSET. — PREPARING FOR 
THE NIGHT. — TOBY. — FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MISERY. — 
FAUNA OF A MOUNTAIN-TOP. — EXPLORING THE CRATER- 
BRIM. — YUCCAS AND WILD PINES. — TOBY IN THE CAVE'S 
MOUTH. — A TERROR-STRICKEN AFRICAN. — JACOB'S WELL. — 
SNAKES AND PITFALLS. — TOBY'S " STOCK." ■ — THE SOUFRIERE- 
BIRD. — A MYSTERIOUS SONGSTER. — UNAVAILING ATTEMPTS 
TO PROCURE IT. — SOUGHT FOR A CENTURY. — A DREAM. — 
NASAL BLASTS. — SEARCHING FOR THE BIRD. — THE CARIB 
BIRD-CALL. — ■ THE CAPTURE. — A NEW BIRD. — A PLUNGE INTO 
DARKNESS. — SCARED BY A SNAKE. — TOBY DESPERATE. — DE- 
PARTURE FOR CARIB COUNTRY. 

ST. VINCENT contains the last of the West Indian 
volcanoes from which the present century has 
witnessed destructive eruptions ; the Soufriere, that 
towered above and overlooked the Richmond planta- 
tion, having, in 1812, burst upon the island with ter- 
rible force. This eruption, which seemed to relieve 
a pressure upon the earth's crust, extending from 
Caracas to the Mississippi Valley, was most disastrous 
in its effects, having covered the whole island with 
ashes, cinders, pumice, and scoriae, destroyed many 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. 1 85 

lives and ruined several estates. It lasted three days, 
commencing on or near that fatal day, in 1812, when 
Caracas was destroyed, and ten thousand souls per- 
ished in a moment of time. 

Ashes from this volcano descended upon Barbados, 
ninety-five miles to windward ; and this fact is cited 
by Elisc Reclus, in "The Ocean," to show the force 
of different aerial currents : "On the first day of May, 
181 2, when the north-east trade-wind was in all its 
force, enormous quantities of ashes obscured the 
atmosphere above the island of Barbados, and covered 
the ground with a thick layer. One would have sup- 
posed that they came from the volcanoes of the Azores, 
which were to the north-east ; nevertheless they were 
cast up by the crater in St. Vincent, one hundred miles 
to the west. It is therefore certain that the debris had 
been hurled, by the force of the eruption, above the 
moving sheet of the trade-winds into an aerial river 
proceeding in a contrary direction." 

Since that terrible outburst the volcano has remained 
inactive ; having done its allotted work, it rested. 

An eye-witness thus describes its appearance previ- 
ous to the eruption : " About three thousand feet above 
sea-level, on the south side of the mountain, opened 
a circular chasm exceeding half a mile in diameter, 
and between four hundred and five hundred feet in 
depth. Exactly in the center rose a conical hill nearly 
three hundred feet in height, and about two hundred 
in diameter, richly covered and variegated with shrubs, 
brushwood, and vines about half-way up, and the re- 
mainder covered over with virgin sulphur to the top. 
From the fissures of the cone a thin white smoke was 
constantly emitted, occasionally tinged with a slight, 



l86 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

bluish flame. The precipitous sides of this magnifi- 
cent amphitheatre were fringed with various ever- 
greens and aromatic shrubs, flowers, and Alpine 
plants. On the north and south sides of the base of 
the cone were two pieces of water, one perfectly pure 
and tasteless, the other strongly impregnated with- sul- 
phur and alum. This lonely and beautiful spot was 
rendered more enchanting by the singularly melodious 
notes of a bird, an inhabitant of these upper solitudes, 
and altogether unknown to the other parts of the 
island — hence called, or supposed to be, invisible^ 
as it had never been seen. 

"A century had now elapsed since the last convulsion 
of the mountain, or since any other elements had dis- 
turbed the serenity of this wilderness, besides those 
which are common to the tropical tempest. It ap- 
parently slumbered in primitive solitude and tran- 
quillity ; and from the luxuriant vegetation and growth 
of the forest, which covered its sides from base to sum- 
mit, seemed to discountenance the fact and falsify the 
record of the ancient volcano." 

To ascend the volcano was the object of my visit to 
Richmond, and also to procure that famous bird called 
"invisible." For a century, the people crossing the 
mountains had heard this bird, for a century no one 
had looked upon it. No one could affirm that he had 
seen it. Its weird music, ascending from the fright- 
ful ravines on either side the narrow mountain trail, 
seemed to float near them, but the bird ever remained 
undiscovered. By a preliminary ascent I found that 
it would be necessary, in order to procure the bird, to 
spend several days on the mountain-top, as it dwelt 



A CAxMP IN A CRATER. 1 87 

in deep gorges and ravines, requiring courage and 
patience to penetrate. 

At last came the perfect day, when the Soufriere 
emerged from the mist that had enveloped it for two 
weeks, and stood out clear against a sky of blue and 
clouds of silver gray. A glorious day was that last 
day in October, with its bright sun illumining the 
mountain, over whose crest were flitting shadows cast 
by fleeing clouds. The good people with whom I had 
rested for a week and more, added to my provisions 
luxuries I could not purchase, such as guava jelly, 
Java-plum wine, limes and oranges, and Mr. Evelyn 
and his son rode with me a little way on my journey. 

At first the road was along the shore, beneath cliffs 
and groo-groo palms ; we crossed a turbulent river, 
with wide, rock}' bed, and soon came to the bed of the 
famous " dry river," — the channel worn by that resist- 
less flood of lava when on its wav to the sea. It is 
two hundred yards in width, barren of vegetation for 
a mile from the sea, inclosed between high cliffs, 
clothed in verdure, hung with vines, spiny palms, 
tree-ferns — a wonderful hanging garden. There 
are three of these "dry rivers," where the lava filled 
up the bed of some flowing stream, or excavated an 
immense furrow for itself in its descent; nothing will 
grow in them near the sea, though their banks are 
rank with vegetation. 

We went through a cane-field, and then over an at- 
tractive pasture land, leaving which I commenced the 
ascent. Here, at the foot-hills of the Soufriere, my 
friends left me, and here my friend's mule ("Betsey," 
the best mule on the estate) manifested a desire to 
return also. Vigorously I applied the spur, and she 



188 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

slowly ascended the winding path, over ridges covered 
with calumet grass, and through forest-like groups of 
tree-ferns and wild plantains. Having given Betsey a 
taste of the grass, while she was resting beneath a 
shade, she was prone to stop and loath to go ahead, 
and it was late when I reached the " maroon tree," 
half-way up the mountain-side. 

Over and through the broad-leaved plants darted 
the humming-birds — crested, violet-breast, and crim- 
son-throat. Most conspicuous and numerous was the 
latter, with back of purple-black and throat of crim- 
son-gold ; I found him oftenest in the upper forests, 
in the dark recesses of untrodden glens and along the 
borders of the mountain path. If you hear a sharp 
chirp in these silent woods, or are startled by a sud- 
den whir, be sure it is he. Sparrows, finches, and 
humming-birds were in profusion ; they flew hurriedly 
across the space in front of the tree, and darted at once 
into a thicket, as though afraid in the open, but re- 
assured in the shade. 

Finally my men appeared, loudly complaining of 
their loads ; though I knew they had loitered and were 
at that moment chuckling to themselves over the man- 
ner in which they had " fool Massa Buckra." A 
wood-pigeon had been all the while feeding in the 
trees above, and parrots had proclaimed their presence 
by loud cries below, but both disappeared at the ar- 
rival of the men. After a biscuit and sup of beer, we 
went on ; the trail, increasing rapidly in steepness, 
left the tall trees behind, and led through smaller ones 
scarcely fifteen feet in height. Soon even these alto- 
gether ceased, and we climbed the backbone of the 
long hill leading to the summit, which is destitute of 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. 189 

anything like trees, and densely covered with a fern 
with flat, branching head, and giant lycopodiums. 
One would fancy he could walk over this hill in any 
direction, so dense and solid appears this leafy carpet, 
but a step outside the trail almost anywhere would 
plunge him waist-deep in ferns, and probably neck- 
deep into a hole. The view of the grand, rugged, 
dark-green mountains near at hand, and of the con- 
stantly unfolding shore, green with sugar-cane, is 
superb. Here St. Vincent seems but two or three 
miles across, and one sees what a little island it is ; 
but, upon reflection, how grand are the works of na- 
ture contained herein ! 

Half a mile from the summit I heard the weird notes 
of the " Soufriere-bird," that songster about which 
hung the mystery I hoped to penetrate. Slowly climb- 
ing the winding path, I at length reached a cave, 
hollowed out of the bank, hung with ferns dripping 
with moisture. My cave, however, was a mile far- 
ther, and without halting I passed on ; a sudden turn 
revealed the crater, deep and vast, on the very brink 
of which I stood. As my mule refused to go farther, 
and kicked and reared in a manner not desirable on 
the brink of a crater half a mile deep, I was forced to 
return to the cave and tie this mutinous mule ; then I 
returned to the contemplation of the great work before 
me. The vapors wafted on the trade-wind, vapors in 
odor sulphureous, had, by their strength, warned me 
of its proximity. 

It was a vast amphitheatre, a mile in diameter, as 
nearly circular as it is possible to be, three miles in cir- 
cumference ; the walls ran straight down from my feet 
to a lake at the bottom. The lip, or top, is irregular, 



I90 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

of a wavy outline, rising into pointed peaks, sinking 
into hollows ; but from any point in this vast circum- 
ference the wall descends rapidly, and almost perpen- 
dicularly, to the water beneath. The sides are covered 
with a stunted vegetation, forming a smooth, sloping 
surface, which might deceive the spectator into the 
belief that he could walk down to the bottom. On 
the southern and south-western sides it assumes more 
the amphitheatre shape, perpendicular ranges of rock 
being piled one above another, circling around the 
south-eastern side in columns that call to mind the 
ruins of the Coliseum. 

The eastern wall divides the two craters — the 
"old" and the "new"; the latter blown out in the 
eruption of 1812, where before was solid mountain. It 
is a mere jagged escarpment, along which no one now 
dares climb. Before the rain and force of the violent 
winds had crumbled it so much, it was once scaled. 
It is said that Prince Alfred attempted it in 1861, on 
the occasion of his ascent of this volcano, but failed to 
accomplish it. It is so narrow that one can stride it, 
and so steep down either side that it makes the head 
swim to measure it from above. The northern brim 
is the lowest, and it is here that the lava poured out 
towards the Caribbean Sea at Morne Ronde ; and be- 
yond is the higher peak, against which was forced the 
fiery flood, as seen by the wondering inhabitants of 
the coast. On the southern side the trees and shrubs 
seem blasted and blackened by sulphur fumes. The 
southern wall rises high, and in its dome-shaped sum- 
mit is excavated the cave, my home for nearly a 
week ; its dark portal can be distinctly seen, though 
a mile away. 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. 191 

The whole shore of the lake at the bottom of the 
crater is incrusted with sulphur, a gray and } T ellow 
rim lining the base of the cliffs that dip down, no 
one knows how deep, into the water of the basin. 
Around the shore are little caves, grottoes, and black 
openings to. the many ravines that seam the side of 
the bowl. A little islet is formed on the eastern side 
— the "new-crater" side — by a detached rock, or 
water-worn pinnacle from a submerged rocky base. 
In some of the ravines are scattered tree-ferns, stunted, 
to be sure, yet possessing grace and beauty that the 
fern, especially the tree-fern, never loses. 

But how shall I describe that sheet of water 
slumbering in the bowels of the crater? It lies in the 
bottom of the bowl at least twelve hundred feet be- 
neath the brim, serene, unmoved, a lake beneath the 
power of the elements to ruffle. Clouds of mist sail 
over it, and are blown into the crater from the east- 
ward, but the fiercest gusts, and they are strong and 
frequent, cannot disturb that silent lake reposing 
in its bosom. Its hue is almost indescribable : pearl- 
green, creamy in hue yet with a decided greenish 
tint, opalescent with a tinge of the faintest aqua 
marine. Against gray cliffs, dark gorges and green 
moss, as it lies with its circling rim of golden sul- 
phur, it resembles a huge opal in setting of gold and 
emerald. 

In the apex of the southern hill bordering the crater, 
some one, long ago, hollowed out a place for shelter. 
It is only about ten feet across and in depth, and it is 
open on the northern side overlooking the lake, and, 
excepting a slight hollow, at the top, also ; but it gives 
shelter from the keen, mist-laden winds of the Atlan- 



I92 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

tic, and by crouching in one corner, one can avoid 
the rains from any quarter but the north-west. As the 
winds and rains, and all storms save the hurricanes 
and heavy gales — which latter are generally from the 
westward when at their worst — come from eastward, 
this cave gives protection in a majority of cases. It 
is cut out of gray rock, probably part of the moun- 
tain-side before the eruption, and the sides and frag- 
ment of roof are fringed with ferns and wild pines. 
I chose this cave as being more protected, nearer 
the windward coast, my ultimate destination, and as 
being near the only spring of fresh water on the 
mountain. 

It was five o'clock before the men came up. Paying 
three of them, I dispatched them back to Richmond 
with the mule, and my compliments to its owner, and 
hurried on Toby to the work of preparing a camp. 

Here, it is dark before six ; on the western shore 
there is little or no twilight, for the sun drops into the 
Caribbean Sea with a celerity that surprises a North- 
erner, draws a nightcap of crimson and golden clouds 
over his head, which soon turn lead-color then black, 
and the day is done, finished at once without any dally- 
ing, and the stars come out ready for business. The 
blue vault is studded with silver stars and golden 
planets gleaming like lamps ; and if there is a moon, 
mountain and valley are at once flooded with pale 
light. Forcibly such a scene brings to mind those 
lines in "The Ancient Mariner" — 

" The Sun's rim dips ; the stars rush out ; 
At one stride comes the dark." 

Toby cut wood for a fire, and soon had a good one 

roaring in the little fireplace hollowed out of the 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. I93 

eastern wall of the cave. By my direction, he cut 
four small trees having crotches at the tops, and planted 
them in the ground with their crotched parts meeting, 
where I lashed them together, one pair at either side 
of the cave. Across these I laid a pole the length of 
the cave, and secured it firmly with lines, thus forming 
a secure framework, to which I swung my hammock. 
Over the pole, sheltering the hammock, was stretched 
a square of canvas eight feet across, with each corner 
fastened to pegs in the ground. Thus was I provided 
with bed and shelter within half an hour from the 
time we reached the cave. A pair of arm} r blankets 
to cover me, and a coat for a pillow, made a bed so 
soft and templing that I could scarcely wait for the 
water to boil for the coffee ; and after a lunch of 
sardines and crackers we turned into our respective 
quarters. 

Toby, my only companion, deserves especial notice, 
for, though he did not conduct himself throughout our 
stay on the mountain-top with that courage and 
equanimity so desirable in an explorer, or the com- 
panion of one, still he was the only human being 
who accompanied me through it all. To begin with, 
he was black : if a bottle of ink had been emptied 
over him he could not have been blacker, it would 
have been only a waste of ink. And his eyes were 
white — that is, the whites of them ; and whether 
the contrast between them and his skin was owing 
to the whiteness of one and the blackness of the 
other, or to the sootiness of the other and the chalki- 
ness of the one, I could not determine. His nose was 
broad ; to say that it was as broad as it was long 
would be confusion to one's ideas of length and 



194 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

breadth ; and the end, or what was intended for the 
end, turned up, revealing such cavernous nostrils, 
that I often wondered why he did not utilize them in 
rainy weather and crawl into them out of the wet. 
Beneath these wide, dilated nostrils protruded a pair 
of lips without an equal this side of Toby ; the upper 
one formed a protecting ledge, a threshold to the nasal 
caverns, and met the lower in a line that looked like 
a cut in a beefsteak. Between eyes and nose and 
mouth, there was little of Toby left, except wool and 
ears and a narrow strip of forehead, to constitute his 
head. The wool was of the kinkiest ; and the ears, 
they might have been small for a large elephant, but 
they were certainly large for even a good-sized negro. 
The general make-up of Toby was in keeping with 
his features : large was he from his crown to his feet. 
As for those useful members of locomotion, I can only 
affirm as my belief that if my hammock had hung 
lower than it did — two feet from the ground — it 
would have brushed Toby's toes as he lay prostrate on 
his back. 

In the night it commenced to rain, and during the 
succeeding days and nights that we stayed in the cave, 
five in all, rain fell with little intermission. I awoke 
at daybreak, my watch indicating five o'clock. A 
mist covered the mountains, a dense cloud filled the 
crater. It had rained all night, and everything was 
saturated ; a most comfortless morning ; yet, up from 
the trees beneath the cave, from ravine and hidden 
glen-, from the crater's very heart, came the melodious 
notes of the soufri^re-bird. A little later, I heard 
the whistle of a bird new to me, and the notes of the 
" wall bird," the house wren, and the chirping of 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. I95 

sparrows. It evidently was not a comfortless morning 
to them. 

It required considerable time for Toby to get the 
lire under way and coffee boiled ; but when we 
had drunk the coffee and munched a biscuit, and I 
had cleaned and oiled my breech-loader, and inspected 
my photographic chemicals, we left the cave for the 
opposite rim of the crater. Down the rather steep 
hill, along the winding, rocky path, we walked rapid- 
ly ; I once in a while halted to have a shot at some 
bird, but not one showed itself, except a wren, that I 
shot from a mossy stump only a couple of rods from 
the path ; yet Toby could not find it ; indeed, as his 
first step plunged him over head in a gulch that had 
been concealed by ferns, disturbing several black 
snakes that writhed around his legs, he was so terror- 
stricken that he would not look, and ever after he 
would only follow in my footsteps. Then we mounted 
the near peak, where no trail led, and skirted the 
crater-brim to the northern side. We went scarcely 
three quarters of a mile, yet it took us over an hour to 
reach the farthest practicable point. 

Just there I heard the notes of the soufriere-bird, in 
a deep gorge back of the crater-rim. There were 
some pigeon-berry trees growing there, thick and 
black in the shelter of a hill, and I distinctly saw a 
black-backed bird giving utterance to wild notes. 
This was the first time I had seen the soufriere-bird ; 
indeed, I had almost come to consider it invisible, as 
it was popularly supposed to be, for this was the third 
time I had hunted for it. In a previous ascent, for 
the purpose of reconnoissance, I had sought it vainly, 
heard it singing, apparently near me, but could not 



I96 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

discover it: around, below, above, the mysterious 
music floated on the air, but the bird remained unseen. 
The notes, I am certain, are ventriloquial, for they 
never indicate the place in which the bird is at rest 
while uttering them ; a bird may seem at a distance, 
while in reality he is close at hand. 

Cautiously I plunged into the dense thicket of wild 
pines and yuccas that grew on a quaking bed of 
sphagnum, waded into a growth of calumet grass 
higher than my head, and so, plunging deeply and 
holding by rotten trees, I got within shot. At the re- 
port, the bird flew wildly and fell at a distance from 
where I stood ; a few steps farther, and I found my- 
self on the edge of a deep gulch over which hung a 
tangled mass of dead bushes and grass. Toby came to 
my assistance with his cutlass, but we only succeeded 
in getting a foot or two farther. I was obliged to leave 
my first soufri^re-bird, Toby remarking, K No use, 
make um too much bad." We retraced our steps, and 
when within sight of our cave, discovered some people 
there ; a nearer approach revealed a party of ladies 
and gentlemen from the windward sugar-estates, who 
had come up to the mountain marooning. At my re- 
quest, they made their headquarters in the cave, and 
then we all started for the " new crater," reaching it 
after some tough walking, and plucky riding on the 
part of the ladies. 

The " new crater" lies east of the "old," and is 
reached by a narrow trail half circling the huge basin 
of the latter. The climb from the regular trail to 
windward is steep and fatiguing, and made worse by 
over-trailing grass and filamentous yucca, which will 
get entangled in one's legs spite of endeavors to pre- 



A CAMP IN A CRATER. I97 

vent it. You come upon it as abruptly as upon the 
first, and the bank is steep, even shelving in, so that 
you are obliged to lie down and peer over the brink 
to see to the bottom of the abyss. Unlike the first, 
it has no water, save a small pool, dark and gloomy 
enough to be an opening into the great infernal re- 
gions below, as it undoubtedly is. This pool is in the 
eastern side of the crater-floor, which is here com- 
paratively level, with a dip in the direction of the 
water. The walls arise from this floor, jagged and 
rent, torn and water-worn, for nearly a thousand feet, 
precipitous, seamed in places with ravines and cov- 
ered with ferns. 

There is not much of interest here outside the fact 
that it had its origin in that terrible explosion in 181 2, 
before which the space occupied by this great crater 
was solid mountain. At the same time also that coni- 
cal island which rose from the center of the other cra- 
ter was blown into space. It has been entered and 
the bottom reached, but all attempts to fathom that 
black pool have been unavailing. From a little dis- 
tance can be seen the bulging wall that arises from 
the slope eastward, which gives this mountain sum- 
mit a cone-like character. Beyond is an enclosing 
ring of mountains, and in a narrow valley between 
crater-cone and mountains are deep, very deep, ra- 
vines and gorges, where flowed that fiery tide of lava 
when it swept down upon the windward coast. 

We returned to the cave, and soon the party left 
us, with offers of assistance when I should arrive at 
their plantations. Toby sat in the cave's mouth, nor 
would he stir from it during the ensuing three days 
and nights, except to get water and wood. His ex- 



I98 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

perience with the snakes had satisfied him. The 
attendants of the party had related to him the idle 
tale current among the negroes of the coast, namely, 
that the first individual who saw the soufriere-bird 
would surely die. Much more was the danger in- 
creased when the bird should be killed ; and with 
what vengeance dire the evil spirits would visit the 
author of its death, they hesitated, shuddered even, 
to think. Consequently Toby was in trepidation ; 
his spirit was perturbed. Sullenly he performed his 
daily work. He even hesitated to go for water to the 
spring on the mountain-side — to "Jacob's well" — 
which gushed from under a huge bowlder, forming a 
little pool, half a mile from the cave. He was com- 
pletely demoralized, and the incessant rain made him 
disconsolate ; he sat in his corner resting his chin on 
his hand, his nose on his lips, nodding assent to his 
inward cogitations in a manner that boded no good to 
my enterprise. 

He had constructed a little shelter of sticks and 
leaves in a corner of the cave, where he slept by 
night on a scanty layer of leaves, and drowsed by 
day. The second day he informed me that he felt 
it imperative to go down to see his " stock ; " that he 
had left his "stock" with no one to "care fur dem," — 
a "pig high like dat" — measuring a distance of about 
a foot above the ground, — " one high like dis, an' one 
high so, sah." After this, I noticed that his anxiety 
for his stock increased with the inclemency of the 
weather. Altogether, I do not think Toby enjoyed 
his residence on the mountain-top, especially as he 
looked forward to the death of the bird with fear, 
while I could only think of it with feelings of lively 



THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. I99 

joy. Hence, he not only refused to accompany me 
on my excursions, but exercised his little wit to throw 
obstacles in my way. 

The local name of the " Soufriere-bird," from the 
French word soiifriere, a sulphur mountain, an in- 
habitant of the volcano, has been obtained from the 
Caribs and the negroes, as the bird is rarely heard 
outside a gunshot limit from the crater. Its habitat 
is strictly mountainous, and I do not think it is ever 
found at a lesser height than one thousand feet above 
the sea, and in the dark ravines and gorges seaming 
the sides of the cone it finds a congenial retreat. It re- 
sembles a closely-allied bird of Dominica, the "Moun- 
tain whistler," in many particulars, especially in its 
habits of seclusion, shyness, and melody of song. It 
is, however, much shyer than even the Dominica 
bird ; and while the latter seems to prefer the solitude 
of dark gorges more from a love of retirement than 
fear of man, the soufriere-bird is timid, even suspi- 
ciously watchful of man's presence, and flies from 
his approach. In its wild, sweet, melancholy music 
it strikingly resembles the "mountain whistler," but 
the notes are different. 

From the dense thicket of trees bordering the trail 
around the crater this bird sends forth its mystic mu- 
sic, and darts away at the slightest indication of human 
proximity to its haunts. As the earth supporting the 
trees it inhabits is cut into every conceivable shape 
of hole, rut, and ravine, and as, moreover, the place 
swarms with monster snakes, the terror of the negroes, 
almost the only people crossing the mountain, it has 
been connected with the superstitions of the negro, 
and has ever remained the "invisible, mysterious bird 



200 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

with the heavenly song." Naturalists have sought for 
it, and residents of the island have tried to capture 
it, but without success. Misled by its ventriloquial 
music and deterred by the character of its rough re- 
treats, they have returned bootless to the coast, almost 
believing, with the negro, that it was indeed invisible. 
The Indians avoided its haunts, and regarded with 
veneration this bird that filled the air with unearthly 
melody ; for generations they have preserved the tra- 
dition of its existence, and vaguely associated it with 
the tutelar deity of the volcano. 

The third night passed wearily. My blankets, ham- 
mock, and garments were saturated by the mist, and 
the air was so charged with sulphur fumes that it 
seemed difficult to breathe. Toby rested uneasily ; 
his uncomfortable couch and his anxiety regarding 
his "stock" interfered with perfect repose. By the 
aid of a line fastened to a stake, I managed to keep 
my hammock moving, and thus rocked myself to 
sleep ; but my naps were short and fitful, and fre- 
quently interrupted. Toward the small hours I was 
asleep and dreaming. The events of the preceding 
days, and the constant reminder before me of that 
catastrophe of sixty years before,, when this mountain 
was shaken and rent and the fire, in its bosom let loose, 
gave shape to m} 7- dreams. I was living through that 
terrible week in April, when the volcano vomited forth 
the volume of ashes and fire that desolated the island ; 
nay, more, I was camped upon its very summit. I 
felt the heaving of the earth beneath, but could not 
move ; I heard the gathering of those internal forces 
preparatory to the bursting forth of flame and steam ; 
the rumbling roar that came up from that subterranean 



THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 201 

furnace grew louder and increased to the howling of 
the hurricane, and seemed to approach the very crust 
of earth upon which I lay ; the thin shell vibrated, 
cracked, fire leaped forth, and, amid the most terrific 
explosions, I descended — to the bottom of my cave. 

Confused and astonished, I gathered my blanket 
about me, and looked around. The hammock was 
oscillating gently, small stones and particles of loos- 
ened earth were falling from above in a gentle shower, 
and Toby was snoring earnestly. Returning to my 
hammock, I lay there cogitating, with the rain pat- 
tering on my canvas roof, and watched Toby as he 
emitted those nasal blasts. An idea struck me — 
ideas often strike me. Why could not this wasted 
power be utilized? Snoring causes vibration ; vibra- 
tion communicated causes motion; motion was what 
I wanted to swing my hammock, to rock me to sleep. 
Instantly I had conceived a device for utilizing this 
force ; and such was my faith in its merits, that, if 
I had been on American instead of English soil, I 
should have hastened at once to get the invention pro- 
tected by patent. This boon to people who sleep in 
couples, this invention that will do away with mid- 
night rising to rock the cradle, is not yet patented ; 
hence it would not be policy in me to give the details 
of its construction to the world. 

The morning of the fourth day dawned dimly. 
Toby prepared coffee, and I took my gun and game- 
basket and went down the mountain a short way, 
where I had heard the song of the bird the day be- 
fore. It was a sort of shoulder in the hill, where a 
curve in the crater-brim and a hollow in the hill gave 
shelter from the vapor-charged wind from the " wind- 



202 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ward." I entered the thicket of stunted trees with 
dense tops, and sat down. As I did so, the whistle 
of a soufriere-bird, that had emanated from it, sud- 
denly ceased, and I knew he had seen me and had 
flown. I waited a long time in silence, but they 
seemed to have been made aware of my presence, 
and only the distant murmur of their music came to 
me from different parts of the slope. Tired of this 
solitude, I started down the steep declivity. The first 
step taken beyond the range of my vision as I sat, 
plunged me into a hole to my neck ; it had been con- 
cealed by ferns and mosses, and I slowly crawled out 
through them with painful exertion. 

I found that the surface was cut up into ravines 
and gullies, starting from the crater-rim. Probably 
the deepest of them were gouged out by the flood of 
lava that 'poured over the crater's edge in that terrible 
outflow of volcanic wealth. Rain flowing through the 
loose volcanic ash may have cut the more recent, but 
it could not have descended with sufficient impetuosity 
to have hollowed out the deep well-holes and cut those 
deep ravines with perpendicular walls. Starting from 
the narrow edge of the crater, they spread out like 
a fan, furrowing the outer surface of the cone, grow- 
ing deeper, broader, and gloomier, until lost in the 
dark recesses below. Over all grew the small trees, 
densely crowded; ferns, filamentous yuccas, moss 
and wild pines covered the earth and rocks in impen- 
etrable confusion, so concealing the openings to the 
narrower gullies that it was impossible to ascertain 
their whereabouts without a very careful examination. 
It was into this wilderness that I plunged, floundering 
through tangled masses of branching fern and through 



THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 2C>3 

dense clusters of ground-orchids. But I found few 
birds save a sparrow or two and a sucrier, and the 
prospect was most discouraging. 

A death-like stillness pervaded that gloomy slope, 
disturbed only by the swirr of the volumes of mist as 
they swept over the eastern spur, and the faint notes 
of the soufriere-bird down below. Suddenly I be- 
thought myself of a bird-call taught me by the Caribs 
of Dominica ; and with such success did I use it, that, 
in ten minutes, the hitherto silent trees were alive with 
stirring feathered forms, hurrying forward in anxious 
flight. The first to respond — and I afterwards found 
it always in advance of the others — was a flycatcher ; 
it flew precipitately to the very tree beneath which I 
stood, and hopped about the branches, peering anx- 
iously beneath ; closely following him was his mate. 
Then the sparrows (two species) took up the cry, and 
close behind them came the certhiolas ; but these latter 
satisfied themselves with a glance and then went about 
their business. The little humming-bird, the crested, 
was the most attracted and the most audacious, and flew 
directly for my face, halting on buzzing wings before 
me, darting from side to side, finally alighting on a 
branch close by, crest erected, every feather of this 
pigmy beauty seemingly electrified, darting glances 
in every direction. Then the rapid whirring of wings 
gave token of the coming of the great crimson- 
throated hummer, and he seemed as anxious, and 
circled as closely about me, as his little cousin ; he 
likewise perched himself upon a near twig, his back 
and throat resplendent in the fugitive sunbeams that 
stole through the branches. 



204 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

But, gratified as I was with this stir of animated life 
that my seductive call had evoked, I still awaited 
anxiously the appearance of that rara avis of these 
solitudes. Soon I heard a low call-note, such as I 
had heard that bird give utterance to, and imitating it 
closely as possible, I was gratified to hear it repeated 
nearer at hand, and then caught a glimpse of a dusky 
body flitting on rapid wing through the farther shades. 
Its flight was very rapid and noiseless. It suddenly 
came into view a good gun-shot off, evidently excited, 
twitching its tail, jerking its wings, and uttering a 
low whistle. In a thought it saw me, just as I caught 
a snap-shot as it darted through the closely-woven 
branches. Through the thin veil of smoke I caught 
sight of a few floating feathers, and hurried forward 
without reloading, breaking my way through matted 
masses of ferns, leaping gullies, and swinging myself 
finally beneath the tree upon which he had for a 
moment rested. There was nothing in sight. Dis- 
appointed, I yet trusted those floating feathers had 
not misled me, and renewed the search, carefully 
displacing the ferns and fallen branches one by one. 
It was only upon searching lower down, where a 
steep incline had given it impetus, that I found it, 
lodged in a wild pine on the verge of a ravine. 

Exultant was I then, as that soft-plumaged bird lay 
in view before me ; forgotten was the toil and previous 
exertion, forgotten the rain and discomfort of the 
night. I had triumphed over all obstacles in my path, 
and was about to hold in my hand the first soufridre- 
bird known to have been shot within the memory of 
any one now living. In my anxiety, in my headlong 



THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 205 

eagerness to possess the bird, I neglected to examine 
the ground beneath my feet ; I saw only the bird, and 
darted forward. The loose earth gave way, the 
mass of orchids and roots, loosened by the rains, fell 
without warning, and I, wildly grasping at overhang- 
ing roots which broke in my grip, was thrown into 
the ravine. It was not more than fifteen feet in depth, 
and so narrow that my fall was broken by the adjacent 
walls, and I landed on my feet, bruised and a little 
torn, but without serious injury. 

Joy at escape from immediate danger was quickly 
turned to apprehension regarding escape from the 
gulch, for the walls were as smooth as water could 
wear them, and the lower portion of the ravine dis- 
appeared suddenly in the direction of the lake. The 
head of the ravine was a hole like a well, and into 
this I had fallen. Through the crevice below me I 
could see the shimmering waters of the lake, a thou- 
sand feet beneath, and a few steps farther would have 
precipitated me into its unfathomed abyss. 

A shower heavier than the others came down fierce- 
ly, setting rivulets running down the crater and wash- 
ing the earth from beneath my feet, warning me to be 
out of the hole if possible. Clinging to some pro- 
jections in the rock, I worked my way slowly up until 
near the top ; when about to thrust my arm through 
the vines that darkened my chamber, I was startled 
by the appearance of a black, shining head with 
glittering eyes, thrust right into my face. But for the 
nearness of the opposite wall, I should have fallen, 
this apparition took me so by surprise, for it was none 
other than an immense black snake. Fortunately, I 



206 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



could secure myself in position by bracing my legs 
against each opposing cliff, and was near enough to 
the top to clutch some roots, otherwise I could not 
have maintained the ground I had gained. The snake 
crawled out of a crevice in the rock, and though he 
may not have intended to harm me, I will confess 

to a feeling of fear 




at that time, and 
remembered with re- 
gret how thoughtless- 
ly I had laughed at 
poor Toby, the day 
before, when he fled 
in terror from a snake 
I had caught by the 
tail. My gun, which 
had not been injured 
in my fall, was slung 
at my back, and by 
loosening it I man- 
aged to strike the 
snake a smart blow, 
which, though it an- 
gered him, caused 
him to glide down the cliff instead of up. Thus 
relieved, I scrambled through the dank vegetation, 
and stood once more above the ground. 

From the lake came up a strange hissing sound, as 
though the water was boiling, caused by the many 
streams set in flow by the rain running into it. Its 
usually placid surface was agitated, and I could detect 
a perceptible change in its color. 



T< 



THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 207 

My precious bird had landed safely at the bottom 
of the gulch, though somewhat soiled, and he now 
reposed in my game-basket, wrapped in a paper cone. 
This was the first soufriere-bird I secured ; the next 
day I shot three others ; they proved to be a new 
species and were named the Myiadestes sibilans. 
Another species, shot in the same locality, proved to 
be also new, and was afterwards named the Leu- 
coftcza Bisho-pi. 

The day following, Toby's patience gave out 
entirely, and I was obliged to descend the mountain 
to the Carib country, which, as the cloud of fog lifted, 
I could see from my cave as a lovely green slope, 
lying between dark mountains and blue, white-rimmed 
ocean. 



2o8 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TRADITIONAL LORE. A MISADVENTURE. 

carib country. — sandy bay. — captain george. — captain 
George's family. — his superstitions. — a carib romance. 

— a love test. — courtship and marriage. — preparing 
cassava. — farine. — an indian invention. — the obeah 
charm. — the carib wars. — a brave coward. — the 
caribs captured. — sent to coast of honduras. — the 
survivors. — the seminoles. — a parallel. — carib song. 

— captain george's treasure. — a misadventure. — bal- 
liceaux. — a search for skulls. — battowia. — the 
"moses boat." — the monster iguana. — the cave. — the 
tortoise. — a relic of a past age. — tropic birds. — our 
boat smashed. — a night on the beach. — the southern 
cross. — paul and virginia. — church island. 

CARIB COUNTRY is that portion of the island 
of St. Vincent lying between the central ridge 
of mountains and the Atlantic coast. It is the most 
fertile and level, spreading from the foot of the hills 
in gentle slopes and undulating plains. Formerly in 
possession of the Caribs, it early attracted the English 
by its fertility, and, by processes well known to the 
white man when he desires his red brother's land, it 
soon changed hands. Though one may lament this 
usurpation of the Indian's territory, and deprecate such 
deeds on general principles, one is soon reconciled to 
the change after he has been domiciled among the 
people in present possession. 



TRADITIONAL LORE. 200, 

It has never been my fortune to meet a Scotchman 
on his native heath, and whether he is improved by 
being transplanted to another clime, I cannot tell. 
One thing is indisputable, he could not be more 
generous, more hospitable, more companionable than 
are those rare Scotchmen in the West Indies, with 
especial reference to the managers of those estates in 
Carib country. As all the estates were owned by one 
firm, and that firm held that there were no managers 
so skillful and faithful as their own countrymen, 
this part of the island was often alluded to as New 
Caledonia. 

From " Happy Hill," accompanied by its manager 
and those of adjoining estates, I cantered, on a borrowed 
pony, clown the coast to the Carib settlement. At 
Rabaca is the celebrated " Dry River" of the eastern 
coast, which is very broad, and often swept by tor- 
rents from the mountains. My friends rode with me 
as far as Overland, a most interesting negro village 
of wattled huts, built in a thick wood of cocoa-palms 
and bread-fruits. Here they left me with friendly 
adieus, and I went on alone. The Soufriere rose 
grandly from out its surrounding forests, and the 
great rock, shaped like a lion couchant, near which 
my cave opened, was sharply cut against the bluest 
of skies. 

The Carib settlement of Sandy Bay is the most 
secluded in the island ; it is also the most picturesque ; 
but, as rocks and wooded hills are the principal ele- 
ments of a picturesque landscape, I fancy the Caribs 
isolated here would gladly exchange their portion for 
the more fertile fields near Rabaca. 

An Indian named Rabaca, a pure Carib, one 
1A 



2IO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

descended from an ancient family, met me and aided 
me in my search for a house, and I was comfortably 
fixed before night in a little house of reeds, wattled 
and thatched. It contained two rooms eight feet 
square, separated by a matting of tied wild-plantain 
ribs. The result of my observations here is incorpo- 
rated in chapter nine, but there are some incidents of 
Indian life that have not been alluded to in that 
narrative. 

My nearest neighbor was " Captain George," an 
Indian descended from the " Black Caribs." That is, 
his father, or grandfather, was a negro, while his 
mother, or grandmother, was a Carib. From either 
paternal or maternal ancestor he had inherited a kinky 
wool and rather thick lips, but the Indian blood 
showed itself strongly. Captain George was intelli- 
gent beyond the average Carib, and possessed a good 
knowledge of the ancient language, which his grand- 
mother, who had " brung him up," had taught him ; 
and as he was always ready to impart to me the words 
and idioms of the Indian tongue, I was a frequent 
visitor to his cabin, where I would sit for hours listen- 
ing to the tales and traditions handed down from his 
ancestors. He had an interesting family ; and, as he 
had married a "Yellow Carib," a woman of uncontami- 
nated Indian blood, his children did not resemble in 
complexion either him or his wife. Nothing can bet- 
ter show this difference than the photograph I took of 
the group one afternoon, as we returned from hunting 
in the hills. The children were blessed with abun- 
dant, black, straight hair, which was worn by the 
girls in long braids ; it was a trifle coarser than that 
of the mother, but yet beautiful. 



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m~ <3^=Ss JSP '^Sssfi 



TRADITIONAL LORE. 211 

Sandy Bay takes its name from a beach of gray 
sand guarded by volcanic rocks, lined with tropical 
vegetation ; at its northern end was a single cocoa 
palm leaning over a thatched hut used as a boat- 
house. Beneath this hut' I encountered some of my 
Indian neighbors, dividing their spoils from the sea; 
there were fish of every color: "parrot fish," "butter 
fish," and " silver fish," radiant with all the hues of the 
rainbow. To each man Captain George laid aside 
his portion, and from each little heap took a fish for 
the stranger sojourning among them. This done, he 
retired with me to a log beneath the thatch, and over- 
hauled his store of traditional Indian lore. The seas 
came up with white crests, reaching far up the strand ; 
the sun was down behind the volcano, leaving a long, 
cool twilight, to which the leeward shore is a stranger. 

Our conversation turned upon ghosts and those evil 
spirits called by the negroes, and by the Indians, 
jumbies, or jombies. "I have saw jumbie not more 
than three times," said the old Indian. " Once time, 
I runned away from Rabaca, an' when I reach de 
dry ribah, walkin' along, swingin' my bundle, I see 
man, high so, as a hoss, an' he point me back; but I 
keep on. When I come to cross de ribah I see big 
bull-calf to come down de bank ; he tail up, an' he 
come fo' me an' swing roun' an' roun' an' bawl, an' 
then he run back. It to make my har stan' up, so ; 
an' when I make to meet him at nex' ribah I was 
want to cross, an' he came fo' me an' bawl, I say, 
' Oh, good Massa, keep jumbie away ; ' an' he no 
come no mo'. 

" A young man, he courtin' he sweetheart; he say, 
'You lub me?' He sweetheart say, 'Yes.' He say, 



212 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

'Like you life you lub me?' 'Yes.' Well, he say, 
' I try you : Ef you lub me, so ; ef you no lub me an' 
no mine me, I kill you dead to-day.' So he go to ketch 
some mouse — how he was to do dat I do' know ; but 
he ketch um mice an' put him under calbash on de 
groun'. Den he call um sweetheart an' say, 'I go to 
leabe you now. You see dat calbash ! Under dat cal- 
bash is my life, my lub. Ef you lif um up he make 
um go ; ef you lub me, you no lif um up.' So he go 
'way. When he gone, she walk all 'bout, she cannot 
to stay still ; she mus' to see under de calbash ; so she 
lif um up. Shi ! out pop de mice an' runned away 
with heself. 

" When time come fo' dinnah, her lubah come back 
'gin. She set down sad, sad, sad ; no tell him howdy. 
He say, ' What de mattah? ' She no speak. He say, 
' Kaiina, myiga' (go and eat). She no go. He say, 
' Kaima, g-oora' (go and drink). She no go. She no 
make talk, but take de big calbash, and go to de 
ribah fo' watah. He say, 'Ah, my lub is out ob de 
calbash.' He lif um up ; no mice no pop out agin. 
Den he go to de ribah — bam! when she lif up de 
watah, he mash he head with stone. 

" When Carib court he sweetheart he must not to 
see her too often, only but once a month ; an' den 
when he courtin' he must to sweep all de yard clean, 
clean, clean, by first cockcrow; ef he to be see after 
dat he cannot court dat girl no mo'. Ef he ketch fish 
he must to bring um to her father's house ; an' he no 
see he sweetheart, only hes father ; and he no see hes 
mother-law 'tall, [great deprivation.] When he to get 
married, he must go to de wood an' cut down tall 
gommier an' make six-oar boat." 



TRADITIONAL LORE. 21 3 

The ancient marriage ceremony was very simple ; 
the man and woman dug and washed some cas- 
sava, boiled it, and baked very thick cakes. From 
fhe liquor, boiled down, they made a drink which 
they mixed with rum and resinous leaves. These 
things were placed on a table around which were 
seated the man and woman, her father and mother, 
and two witnesses. The father cut the cassava into 
six pieces, and handed one to the groom, who dipped 
it in the liquor and gave it to his bride. She in turn 
dipped another piece, given her by her mother, and 
gave it to the groom. After this solemn ceremony 
came feasting and drinking to the extent the groom's 
purse would allow. 

The inhabitants of the village were preparing cas- 
sava, or rather they were making "farine" from the 
cassava root, and Captain George and I went over to 
the river where the women were at work. The juice 
of the cassava (Jatrofiha manihot) is very poisonous. 
Cattle and children often die from eating the raw 
tubers, or drinking water containing the juice. To 
prepare it for use, the natives scrape off* the dark 
outer cuticle, wash the tuber thoroughly and grate it; 
it is then again washed, and a small portion at a 
time wrung out dry in a cloth, leaving it in dry cakes 
which crumble. It is then sifted, rubbed through a 
sieve of reeds split and woven, and afterwards baked 
in very thin cakes on a large iron plate, over a hot 
fire. These cakes will keep a long time ; they are 
hung up over a pole or line, and used as wanted. 
In some islands the people make more of the farine, 
the grated root dried on a large copper or iron plate, 



214 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

being well stirred the while. It is sometimes put 
up in barrels, and always commands a ready sale. 
During the baking process the poisonous quality, 
which is volatile, escapes, and the people eat with 
impunity these roots that in a raw state would prove 
poisonous. The juice itself is made into a drink by 
being boiled, which is palatable to a native. 

I noticed here a curious method in use to press the 
cassava dry after it was grated ; it was a cone of 
woven reeds, so constructed that, when filled with 
cassava and hung up with a weight attached to its 
lower end, a continuous and equable pressure was 
applied to the whole mass. This cone was about four 
feet long, and perhaps six inches across at the mouth, 
or larger end, and is an invention of the Caribs, having 
been found in use by them by the earliest voyagers. 

This farine supplies the place of bread to a great 
extent, the natives preferring it to that article, and 
eating it dry by the handful. There are two varieties, 
the "sweet" and the "bitter" cassava; but the latter, 
though so dangerous, is more extensively cultivated 
than the former, which is harmless. 

After inspecting the preparation of the farine, we 
adjourned to Captain George's cabin, where he re- 
galed me with numerous stories of the achievements 
of the Caribs during the war with the English in the 
last century. He firmly believed that his grandfather 
and other Ca^bs owed the preservation of their lives 
to certain charms obtained from an obeah man in Mar- 
tinique. 

" One time, six Carib kill um white gen'leman, but 
dey not see he serbant hide in de bush. When serbant 
get 'way he tell soldier, ' Carib kill one buckra, my 



TRADITIONAL LORE. 215 

massa.' Well, soldier go dah ; bam ! bam ! de ball 
fall all 'bout; hit um leg, hit um heel, but drop right 
off, and no hurt Carib 'tall, 'tall, fo' dey hab obeah 
charm to keep um from make to dead." 

This allusion to the strife once carried on between 
Carib and English drew out the entire story of the 
war in which the Carib power was forever destroyed. 
In 1772, the best part of the Carib lands having been 
seized, the Indians commenced hostilities, but soon 
came to terms. By treaty, they were then secured in 
the best portion of their lands, and kept the peace until, 
six years liter, instigated and aided by the French 
from Martinique, they revolted. Soon the entire island 
was in French possession, without much, if any, blood- 
shed. In 1784, the island was restored to Great Brit- 
ain by the treaty of Versailles. Incited by the French 
republicans, in 1795, the Caribs again revolted, de- 
feated the troops sent against them, and swarmed 
upon the heights above the town. By the opportune 
arrival of soldiers and marines from Barbados, they 
were driven back, but again assembled, and a great 
fight ensued, in which the English were at first beaten ; 
but finally, by aid of large reinforcements, the Caribs 
were defeated. 

Thus the war went on with varying fortune for a 
year and a half. The negroes were assembled, ap- 
praised at their full value, their owners to be reim- 
bursed for any killed, and sent agaiiftt the Caribs ; 
but these "forest rangers," as they were called, though 
they proved very active and useful in destroying the 
canoes of the enemy, and in bringing in women and 
children from the mountains after the warriors had 
surrendered, did little good service. Doubtless they 



2l6 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

were animated with the high resolve of saving the 
colony the expense of paying their owners. 

At one time, having been driven from Owia, a 
point on the north-east side of the island, the Caribs 
executed a masterly retreat over the volcano, to the 
Caribbean coast, and committed great ravages ; a 
party sent against them there was defeated. In all 
their battles they showed consummate skill and great 
bravery, seizing upon the most advantageous posi- 
tions, fortifying them and holding them to the last. 
The English were at first unfortunate in their gen- 
erals. One of them, "Sir Paulus y^Emilius Irving, 
Bart.," who was pursuing the Caribs with a large 
body of troops, became frightened by a six-pounder 
ball passing near him, and ordered a retreat. Sub- 
sequently the English were nearly cut off, and lost 
several hundred men under this gallant general. 

The Indians understood and practiced the trick of 
posting their best shots in the tall trees, for the purpose 
of picking off the officers. At last there arrived the 
famous General Abercrombie, fresh from his capture 
of St. Lucia, who pushed the French and Caribs so 
hard, with his army of four thousand men, that they 
were obliged to surrender. The French and colored, 
officers and soldiers, were released on parole, with 
the privilege of returning to their own island ; but 
the poor Caribs, thus abandoned, were allowed only 
unconditional surrender. Refusing these terms, most 
of them fled to the mountains, and in the dense forests 
found shelter for a long time, defeating several de- 
tachments of troops sent against them. 

Deprived of crops, and all provisions such as a 
successful foray could obtain, they were gradually 



TRADITIONAL LORE. 217 

gathered in, by use of force and by the necessities 
of their situation, until, of men, women, and children, 
nearly five thousand were captured. These were re- 
moved to the small island of Balliceaux, off the coast 
of St. Vincent, deprived of canoes and arms, and kept 
there for months. Captain George declared that the 
English government aimed to destroy as many of 
them as possible, and caused lime to be mixed in their 
bread ; but of course this was false, and probably arose 
from the fact that the water, being impregnated with 
lime, caused much sickness and death. 

In February, 1797, they were all carried to the 
island of Ruatan, off the Honduras coast. When the 
vessels arrived there, it was found necessary to dis- 
lodge a party of Spaniards in possession, who had 
built a fort. After a hard fight it was taken, and the 
Caribs left to the mercy of whomsoever should appear 
against them. The Carib lands were thus left deso- 
late ; they were declared forfeited, surveyed and sold. 
In 1805, the few remaining Caribs were pardoned, and 
a tract of two hundred and fifty acres, near Morne 
Ronde, was granted them, this territory not being con- 
sidered fertile nor available for sugar-land. Here the 
majority of the Indians have lived in peace ever since. 

It appeared strange to me that thjs settlement at 
Morne Ronde was composed almost wholly of Black 
Caribs, the few families of pure Yellow Caribs living 
on the eastern shore and paying rent for land once in 
full possession of their ancestors. It may have been 
that the innate cowardice of the Black Caribs, born 
of their negro blood, prevented them from taking an 
active part in the war, and may have induced them 
to seek the protection of the English. The " Rangers," 



2l8 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

also, who scoured the woods after the Caribs were 
subdued and scattered, and committed many murders, 
may have been moved to spare people so much re- 
sembling themselves. 

How similar has been the fate of the Caribs to 
that of the Seminoles of the Southern States ! At the 
beginning of the present century, the latter were peace- 
ful and happy, cultivating their gardens with an in- 
telligence that shows them to have been superior 
people. They, too, were driven to war, stripped of 
their property, and hunted by white troops. Their 
resistance lasted for seven years, but in the end, nearly 
all were captured and transported far from their homes. 
Of them a remnant lingers in the hunting-grounds of 
their fathers, engaged, like the present Carib, in agri- 
cultural pursuits. With them, too, the negro found a 
home, married with them, and to them communicated 
the curse of his race. 

The memory of the war of his ancestors stirred 
Captain George to wild song, and his daughters 
danced in the moonlight while he made music on a 
drum hollowed from a log and covered with cow-skin, 
chanting the while a song, of which I can remember 
but two lines : 

" Neech-i-goo, bah-li, boo ui, 
Leh-bi chi, wei-i-ga-mah, ah 1 -wah-si." 

He attended me to my cabin, late in the evening, 
and as he had imbibed freely of distilled cane-juice 
(vulgarly known as rum) he was very confidential, 
and communicated to me the important secret that, in 
a cave on one of the islands to which the Caribs were 
transported, there was a treasure. Of the exact nature 
of this "treasure" he did not inform me, but left me 



A MISADVENTURE. 219 

to infer that it might be gold, or might be of value only 
to the archaeologist. To this latter opinion I was in- 
clined when told that it belonged to the oldest Indian 
of the nation, who, rather than allow it to be taken 
by the English, buried it in the cave. I inferred from 
this that it must be of the nature of a charm or token, 
such as the Indians, when living in primitive simplic- 
ity, carried about them. 

Nearly three months later I visited the island 
where the Caribs had been incarcerated previous to 
their transportation, and as my discovery there strong- 
ly verifies my Indian friend's story, it ma} r be as well 
in this connection to relate my adventures during that 
short trip. 

The island of Balliceaux, the scene of Carib cap- 
tivity, is about twelve miles from St. Vincent, and is 
one of the northernmost of the chain of islands and 
islets known as the Grenadines. It is about a mile in 
length and perhaps an eighth in breadth, rocky and 
dry, covered for the most part with a sparse growth 
of trees. It is owned entirely by one of the largest 
land proprietors in St. Vincent, Mr. Cheesman, who 
has stocked it with goats, guinea-fowl, and deer, in- 
tending it as a preserve, to which he occasionally 
resorts for sport with some friends. 

As his guest, in company with a dozen more valiant 
Scotchmen and Creoles, I left the blue hills of St. 
Vincent, one morning in February, for Balliceaux. 
We landed from the drogher on a sandy beach, above 
which drooped a solitary palm, and wended our way 
to the comfortable house, where we were met by the 
manager, and to which, later, our store of provender 
was transported. Our generous host understood well 



220 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the art of entertaining guests, though it is almost 
superfluous to say this of any West Indian, either 
adopted or to the manor born, and as soon as our feet 
touched the soil of his preserve we felt the truth of 
his assurance, that all was ours as well as his. 

I searched the shore for traces of the Caribs, but was 
unrewarded save by a few shards of pottery ; however, 
I was promised a guide for the morrow, who could pilot 
me to a sepulchre of skulls. Alas ! that morrow did 
not bring its promised pleasure, and those skulls may 
yet linger for some other explorer, for aught I know 
to the contrary. 

Close in sight, about two miles distant, rose the islet 
of Battowia. It was little more than a huge rock 
several hundred feet in height, and clad with vegeta- 
tion on its western slope. In the eastern cliffs was 
the cave which some of the Indians had occupied, and 
which we desired to explore. After early coffee the 
morning succeeding our arrival at Balliceaux, three 
of us embarked in a " Moses-boat " for Battowia. 

The Moses-boat is a peculiarly strong boat built for 
transporting sugar and other heavy freight through 
the heavy surf of the eastern shore. In shape it is 
something like the famous craft in which those "three 
wise men of Gotham" departed on their sea-voyage. 
It is very buoyant, and owes its great strength to 
numerous knees and thick planking. Regarding its 
name, whether it was named for Moses the great 
"lawgiver," or for the man who built the first of the 
kind, will forever remain a mystery. 

In the Moses-boat we embarked : the sea was 
smooth, and we made the passage without mishap. 
There were four of us "buckras," or white men, and 



A MISADVENTURE. 221 

an equal number of negroes. The negroes pulled 
the boat, and the whites encouraged the negroes, and 
withal we made a very satisfactory voyage. Having 
secured the boat a little way from shore, we marched 
up the slope toward the summit. Our host had pro- 
vided a substantial breakfast, to be eaten at the cave, 
and the men staggered under divers kinds of nourish- 
ment contained in bottles with wired corks, a tub of 
ice and other necessaries. 

Soon the bushes grew so thickly that we were 
obliged to '' cutlass " our way, and took turns in cut- 
ting out a path with the great, sword-like knives of 
the blacks. It was hot, weary work, and we made 
slow progress. C. started up a great iguana, quite 
live feet in length, which was basking on the rocks. 
Part of our party got lost in the thick growth, and this 
delayed us so that it was well toward noon when we 
arrived at the ridge and felt the cool breezes from the 
east. 

After a light lunch, we scattered down the cliffs in 
search of the cave. A whoop from one of our attend- 
ants drew us half-way down the precipice, where we 
were introduced to a deep fissure-like hole in the rock, 
hidden by trees. Crawling carefully over the loose 
rock, three hundred feet above the surf beating at the 
base of the cliff, we entered the cave and prepared to 
explore it. A glance showed that it was not large nor 
deep, and we soon found that it led in only a hundred 
feet before the crevice grew so narrow that it could 
not be followed ; but we were satisfied that it led 
down to the sea as we could distinctly hear the boom- 
ing of the waves. 

Along each side of the cavern were hollows, evi- 



222 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

dently artificial, begrimed with smoke, as though they 
had been used as fireplaces. We found no living 
things but bats and tarantulas ; the former flew about 
in great numbers. While my companions were en- 
gaged in the farther end of the cave, I groped among 
the loose fragments of stone near the mouth, where, 
one of the men told me, an Indian chair had been 
found some fifteen years before. Carefully displacing 
the stone chippings, I at last found what seemed to be 
an image of stone ; but scraping with a knife revealed 
that it was of wood. It was a tortoise, four inches 
long and two and one-half broad, curiously carved. 
Two holes, a quarter of an inch in diameter, are bored 
through back and breast ; the back, upper part of the 
head, and the throat, are covered with incised figures, 
and the eyes carefully carved hollows, as if for the 
reception of some foreign substance. 

There is little doubt that this image once belonged 
to an Indian living many years ago. I choose to con- 
sider it a zcmi, having as my authority the account 
given in Irving's "Columbus," of the finding of simi- 
lar objects by the Spaniards, among the natives of 
Haiti. Speaking of their religion, he says: "They 
believed in one Supreme Being, who inhabited the 
sky, who was immortal, omnipotent, and invisible. 
They never addressed their worship directly to him, 
but to inferior deities, called zemes, a kind of messen- 
gers or mediators. Each cacique, each family and 
each individual, had a particular zemi as a tutelary 
deity, whose image, generally of a hideous form, was, 
placed about their houses, carved on their furniture, 
and sometimes bound to their foreheads when they 
went to battle. They believed their zemes to be 



A MISADVENTURE. 223 

transferable with all their beneficial powers ; they 
therefore often stole them from each other, and, when 
the Spaniards arrived, hid them away lest they should 
be taken by the strangers. They believed that these 
zemes presided over every object in nature. Some 
had sway over the elements, causing sterile or abun- 
dant years ; some governed the seas and forests, the 
springs and fountains, like the nereids, the dryads, 
and satyrs of antiquity. Once a year each cacique 
held a feast in honor of his zemi, when his subjects 




An Jndian Zemi. 

formed a procession to the temple; the married men 
and women decorated with their most precious orna- 
ments, the young females entirely naked, carrying 
baskets of flowers and cakes, and singing as they 
advanced." 

In the "Smithsonian Report" for 1876 is an elabo- 
rate article describing, with many engravings, a col- 
lection of antiquities from Porto Rico, containing 
several Indian " stools " of stone and wood. These 
stools are ornamented with a head-piece resembling 
this tortoise, and even the eye-sockets have the ap- 



224 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

pearance of having been hollowed out for the recep- 
tion of jewels or bright metal ; as the author of the 
article mentioned above remarks : " In the wooden 
objects, as in the stone one, the eyes excavated for 
precious stones are plainly visible, but the stones are 
wanting." 

The same author quotes Herrera's account of the 
visit of Columbus to Cuba, when a party, having 
penetrated to the interior, returned with glowing ac- 
counts of their reception by the Indians. They found 
a village where each house contained a whole gen- 
eration. " The prime men came out to meet them, led 
them by the arms, and lodged them in one of the new 
houses, causing them to sit down on seats made of 
a solid piece of wood in the shape of a beast with very 
short legs and the tail held up, the head before, with 
eyes and ears of gold." 

This relic of antiquity was undoubtedly taken by 
the Caribs from their enemies of Haiti, and brought 
here by the captor, or it may have belonged to a 
captive Arowak living among the Caribs. The same 
old negro who found the " stool " was of our party, 
but he could not afford any further light except to say, 
" Me tink him b'long to Injun seat." 

Beneath the cave, a hundred feet farther down the 
cliff, was a grotto sparkling with lime crystals. In 
descending to this, we found some great birds, which 
are seldom seen except high in air, sailing above the 
ocean, the Tropic-birds (yPhaethon cethereus') ; and 
they sat so quietly upon the shelves of the cliff, per- 
mitting us to approach, that at first we took them for 
young birds. We soon were convinced that they 
were adult birds by finding some eggs beneath them, 



A MISADVENTURE. 225 

and by the strength of their powerful beaks as they 
pecked at us when we inserted our hands into their 
retreats to pull them out. Dotting the cliff here and 
there, and floating above our heads, with their long 
tails, of but two cylindrical feathers each, fluttering 
in the wind, they formed a graceful element in the 
picture spread before us from the ridge. 

At the summit, where we had left our lunch, we 
exerted ourselves to finish the contents of baskets and 
bottles, and so successful were we that nothing was 
left to burden our men down the slope but a few 
chicken-bones and a little water. Then we hastened 
down to the shore, anxious to join our friends on the 
other island, and rejoicing in our good luck. 

As we turned the great rock which hid the little 
cove in which the boat had been left, we were greeted 
by a loud cry : " De boat done mash, sah ! " A fact 
we verified a few minutes later ; for there floated the 
boat, its rail just above water, thumping on the rocks. 

It was growing late, and there was no time to be 
lost. Our men stripped and plunged into the water 
and commenced bailing the boat, but it was labor 
thrown away; then, by direction of Mr. C, they 
hauled the boat up upon the pebbles of the narrow 
beach at the base of the cliff, and turned her over — 
no easy work — and we were all obliged to assist. As 
the heavy boat came down, bottom up, it caught the 
ankle of the manager and wedged it fast against a 
rock. In releasing him, and hauling the boat into 
position, we all got wet ; but this did not dampen our 
spirits. Pieces of board were nailed on with nails 
extracted from fragments of a wreck, pants and shirts 
were torn up and calked into the seams, together with 



226 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

such moss as we could find, and then we launched the 
boat again, with four men at the oars and two men 
bailing, and started. 

We had not gone a gun-shot from shore before the 
water was up to the thwarts, and the boat fast sink- 
ing. The seas met and howled, running up to the 
rocks in huge, white-crested breakers, and it became 
evident that we could not possibly survive the passage 
across. Reluctantly, our captain gave the order to 
go back ; we reached the little beach just as the water 
touched the rail, jumped out and waded ashore. Some 
sharks, whose triangular fins we could see cutting the 
water outside the rocks, were evidently disappointed, 
and manifested their disapprobation by darting in close 
to the boat, much alarming the negroes. 

All hope of escape by means of the boat was 
abandoned, and we turned our attention to the pros- 
pect of obtaining help from our friends on the other 
island. A portion of a sail was attached to an oar 
and held aloft on a high point, as a signal of distress. 
It was nearly dark by this time and the hour for dinner, 
for the preparation of which Mr. C.'s cook had been 
all day busy. We turned to our stores and discovered 
nothing but the chicken-bones and a tin of sardines. 
There w r as not a drink of water apiece, and we re- 
verted regretfully to those bottles we had emptied so 
lavishly a few hours before. 

Darkness inclosed us, and we sought a couch on 
the bank ; my game-basket served me for a pillow, as 
it had often done before, and a heap of grass for a 
bed'. Fortunately the night was warm and dewless, 
and had it not been for the groans of Frazer, whose 
ankle was badly crushed, we should have slept 



A MISADVENTURE. 227 

soundly ; as it was, we lay awake most of the time 
and counted the stars. 

Ver}' late in the evening we were aroused by a 
shouting, and became aware that our friends had 
sought us. They had all embarked on the drogher, 
after becoming satisfied that some accident had be- 
fallen us, and, after anchoring off our island, had sent 
a boat to seek for us. The night was pitchy dark, 
and the heavy seas clashed so fearfully that to attempt 
a landing would have been certain disaster; so we 
warned our friends back, to wait for us till morning. 

Our voices seemed drowned in the roar of the 
breakers, but the regular click of the oars, growing 
fainter and fainter, told us that we had been heard. 
Frazer told us, between his moanings, that sometimes 
it is impossible to land for weeks, just about this 
season of the year, and we fell to calculating upon 
the chances of subsisting upon iguanas and wild 
goats for a few days, notwithstanding the proximity 
of our friends. On the morrow, however, we safely 
embarked, though hungry, weary, and exceeding 
thirsty. Our more fortunate companions had indeed 
devoured the dinner, while we were fasting on that 
desert rock, but there yet remained sufficient to stay 
our needs ; and they coaxed us with toddies and 
punches and brisk champagne, until we forgot our 
trials and remembered only our triumphs. 

Ever memorable will be that night on the beach — 
the second time in a t\\ elvemonth I had fallen a 
victim to Neptune's rage — as that in which I for the 
first time saw the Southern Cross. As the night 
waned, and the cross assumed an upright position 
upon the horizon, there came to mind that passage 



228 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

from one of the saddest of romances, in which the old 
servant warns Paul and Virginia of the approach of 
midnight, as indicated by the position of the cross.* 
That glorious constellation, watched by the hapless 
lovers in the far-off Mauritius, I saw gleaming above 
the Caribbean Sea, north of and nearer the equator, 
as I lay upon the beach. By a rare coincidence, it 
hung in the sky above a cathedral-shaped rock known 
to the natives as Church Island. 

* u III est tard, il est minuit j la Croix du Stid est droite sur 
P horizon." — Paul et Virginie. 



ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 229 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A MONTH ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 

OUT OF THE FOREST. — INTO A SICK-BED. — MY GOOD ANGEL. — 
CONVALESCENCE. — RUTLAND VALE. — THE HAPPY VALLEY. — 
NOCTURNAL NEIGHBORS. — THE LABOR QUESTION. — A PLANT- 
ER'S TRIALS. — COOLIE IMMIGRATION. — THE NEGRO, RETURN- 
ING TO SAVAGERY. — A SELF-APPOINTED PHYSICIAN. — GOV- 
ERNMENT HOUSE. — TREES OF THE TROPICS. — BREAD-FRUIT 
AND COCOA-PALM. — FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH BREAD-FRUIT. 
— ITS APPEARANCE. — ■ TASTE. — HISTORY OF ITS INTRODUC- 
TION. — ABUNDANCE IN ST. VINCENT. — THE PALMS, THEIR 
GREAT BEAUTY AND UTILITY. — COCOA-PALM, PALMISTE, GROO- 
GROO AND GRIS-GRIS, ARECA AND MOUNTAIN PALMS. — THE 
VINE WITH PERFORATED LEAVES. — THE INDIAN MAIDEN. 

ON the morning of the twentieth of December I 
cantered into town from Carib Country ; at 
night I lay stretched out with fever, having galloped, 
as it were, from the woods to my bed. For ten days 
I had been suffering from the effects of a severe cold, 
caught in the cave on the volcano. In two weeks 
there remained but a wretched apology of my former 
self, and the doctor ordered that I remove what little 
there was left of me to the country as soon as I could 
walk, or mount a horse. 

The days passed wearily. I had exhausted all the 
resources of the room ; had watched my favorite 
lizard as he caught flies on the window-pane, and 



23O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the great, naked-limbed spider, that every morning 
caught a cockroach and dragged it to my head- 
board, where he spent the rest of the day in absorb- 
ing its juices. The question of convalescence seemed 
a doubtful one, until, one da}', I was startled by the 
sound of a cheery voice, and my good angel burst 
into the room like a mountain breeze. 

"What ! down with fever? This won't do; can't 
get well here ; must go down to my estate." And he 
literally dragged me forth, assisted me to dress, packed 
up some clothes and my gun-case, and carried me on 
board the little steamer at the landing. At his beach 
a horse was waiting, and he placed me in the saddle 
and led the way on his own bay mare. Clinging to 
the saddle, I rode slowly up the cane-covered slopes 
to the house, perched on a spur commanding the 
valley, surrounded by bread-fruit and almond trees. 
There I was taken in charge by my friend's good wife, 
and established at the house until fully recovered. 

"Rutland Vale," to which my friend had carried 
me, is a long, narrow valley, extending from the 
Caribbean Sea to the mountains, nearly two miles. 
The estate occupies the whole of this valley, and is 
the best cultivated of any on the Leeward coast, 
being, in the season at which I visited it, one waving 
mass of cane, filling the valley and covering the bil- 
lowy ridges. 

The memory of those sunny days, in which my 
strength came back to me, is the pleasantest, the 
brightest, of the many delightful reminiscences of 
that lovely island. My good host, James Milne, a 
native of BamfF, in Scotland (celebrated as the home 
of Tarn Edward, the "Scottish naturalist"), had 



ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 231 

resided on this estate, as manager, for twenty years. 
In all that time he had been sick but once, though 
exposed to the morning mists and mid-day sun, and, 
in the season of crops, sometimes engaged in the mill- 
house whole nights at a time, without rest. Sur- 
rounded by a large family of healthy children, who 
enjoyed without stint the blessings of the delightful 
climate, my friend reposed in this valley with his flocks 
and herds in almost patriarchal simplicity. He was a 
man of educated tastes, and had gathered about him 
a large and well-selected library, which proved a 
blessing in the heat of the day, when it was not pos- 
sible to stir out of doors. 

At that season, January, the sun sinks behind the 
low ridge that barely hides the sea before six o'clock. 
Hardly has it given its last wink, and left the valley 
in cool shade, when the bats come out in large num- 
bers, taking the place of the swifts of the day-time, 
who, morning and evening, and after every shower, 
are skimming the cane-fields and circling swiftly 
about the trees and buildings. Thus the aerial in- 
sect world is left without rest from incessant pursuit; 
scarcely has one class of enemies departed than an- 
other comes forward, waging a nocturnal and diurnal 
warfare that must be very destructive, when carried 
on with so much vigor and by so many foes. 

One evening my attention was called to some bats, 
or birds, which appeared only when every trace of 
twilight had faded, and circled rapidly around an 
almond tree, either after insects or nuts. After one 
or two turns, perhaps poising themselves on a twig 
a few seconds, they would dart off, returning in ten 
minutes or so to make their circuits about the tree. 



232 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

They increased in number and frequency of visits as 
darkness deepened. After waiting several evenings 
on the veranda, I secured a quick shot at one, just as 
it hovered above the top of the tree. Long had I 
waited ; the wind had died away, leaving the trees 
rigid as stone, every leaf motionless ; the depths 
among the leaves were impenetrable, but against the 
sky I could discern a dark object. Directly I had 
fired, down dropped a large, dark body ; but though 
we searched a long time with a lantern we could not 
find it in the long guinea-grass ; and the hogs had 
been through the place in the morning long before I 
was up. Three months later I obtained the same 
animals in Tobago, and found that they were frugiv- 
orous bats ; in the latter island they were robbing a 
spadillo tree of its soft fruit. 

With a bread-fruit and a strip of salt fish, the Ethi- 
opian is happy, is contented; so long as bread-fruits 
grow and fishes swim the sea, so long will the labor 
question remain a perplexing one to the planter. In 
the time of slavery the planters of the West Indies set 
out a great many bread-fruit trees, so that at the pres- 
ent time they may be found wild in the forest. That 
their introduction has been a questionable benefit to 
the islands, nearly every one viewing the subject with 
unprejudiced eye is inclined to believe. The negro 
will not work while he can obtain his bread so easily. 
He will endure hunger and inferior food in preference 
to plenty and work. 

To aid the planters in their difficulty, natives of the 
EastTndies were imported as laborers. These came 
out indentured for a term of years, generally five, to 
work at a stated price per day. The planter is obliged 



ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 233 

to provide a physician and to keep a large stock of 
drugs constantly at hand. The Coolie is protected by 
government to such an extent that the planter is really 
the slave of the " laborer." Upon the slightest pre- 
text the Coolie can call his manager before a magis- 
trate. If he does not choose to work, he can remain 
in his house on plea of sickness ; if the manager or 
overseer uses force in trying to make the laborer per- 
form his task, he is at once summoned before the 
governor, imprisoned or fined. For a few years the 
Coolies worked well ; they are sprightly intelligent 
people ; and if the anti-slavery party, in power in 
England, had not hedged the planters about with so 
many restrictions, prosperity might have attended their 
efforts, ruined estates might have been reclaimed, and 
these fertile islands once more have blessed the world 
with their products. But the result has shown how 
a party of fanatics can pervert power that, used 
judiciously, might have brought about a new era of 
prosperity. 

The Coolie, though naturally docile, was intelligent, 
and saw his opportunity ; and the planter now is not 
much better off than when he was wholly dependent 
upon negro labor. Wages, to be sure, are ridiculously 
low, though the profits of cane culture do not seem to 
warrant the payment of much higher rates. Twenty 
cents per day ; for women sixteen cents ; for children 
four cents and six cents per day. Some male la- 
borers, by extra work, can earn thirty-six cents, and 
those who have " tasks " assigned them as a day's 
work can finish by noon, and prefer lying idle the 
rest of the da}' to increasing their wages. 

Even upon this small pay the negroes live com- 



234 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

fortably ; two cents per day, I have heard it stated, 
will keep them in fish — the only article the poorest 
of them buy. In the mountains they have their pro- 
vision-grounds, where they cultivate yams, plantains, 
sweet potatoes, cassava, and bananas, and to which 
they devote every Saturday. Sunday, with them, is 
a day of recreation. Thus the estates get from their 
laborers but five half-worked days in a week. To the 
staple article of salt fish there should be added another 
which they purchase when impossible to be obtained 
otherwise — the native rum of the island, which is 
their stay and strength. 

The Coolies are even more frugal than the negroes, 
and soon acquire money enough to purchase goats and 
cattle, which they pasture in some obscure corner of 
the estate. Upon the expiration of their indentures, 
they flock at once to the towns, where, like the 
Portuguese, they set up small shops — proving in the 
end rather a detriment to the island than a benefit. 
Though by the terms of their contracts they are 
obliged to work six days in the week, none of them 
do, appropriating to themselves Saturday as a holiday. 

The labor question does not fall within the scope of 
this book, and I fear I have trenched upon ground I 
should not ; but these remarks were suggested by see- 
ing my friend of Rutland Vale trying to persuade his 
own hired laborers to go into the field. Even after 
himself and his overseer had led the refractory Indian 
to the field and placed a hoe in his hand, he refused 
to work. It is between such fires as these that the 
planter is placed ; and it is time some champion of 
their interests should appear, to place them in a proper 
light before the world. 



ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 235 

From the delightful retreat at Rutland Vale I re- 
turned to town recuperated, though still shaky and 
very thin. My first visit was to the treasurer of the 
island. "Bless my soul," said he, "you haven't any 
blood ; it is blood you want. Come with me ; I'll show 
you what you must do now, if you would build your- 
self up." Saying which, he led me by the hand 
to the sideboard, poured out a glass of ripe old 
Madeira and handed it to me. "Isn't that going to 
restore your vigor? " said he, as I set down the glass 
with a sigh of satisfaction. 

Then I was suddenly converted to that man's belief. 
Since my first skirmish with doctors, many years 
agone, I had never met a physician who prescribed 
and administered so sensibly as this one. 

I looked at the old man with admiration ; I thrilled 
through with hope and the effects of the potent wine. 
It was blood I wanted, was most urgently in need of, 
and I waxed blood-thirsty ; not all the Indians on all 
the plains could be fiercer for blood than I. My 
physician smiled — a complacent smile; said he, "I 
knew it, hit the nail on the head that time. Bless 
your soul, take some more, you don't get such wine 
every day ; bottled myself, imported direct ; take some 
more blood ! " It danced along every vein, and every 
pulse beat responsive gratulation. 

"Now," continued my friend, "you can't get that 
medicine anywhere else, at present; I have thought 
of that, and as we are, I think, agreed as to its efficacy, 
you must accept a few bottles, which I shall send down 
by Thomas, to-morrow. You know the dose : a wine- 
glassful every three hours, and oftener if you feel it 
necessary." 



236 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

A mile from Kingston, at the base of the hills, is 
Government House, the residence of the lieutenant- 
governor of St. Vincent. It is in the center of grounds 
formerly used as a garden of acclimatization for tropi- 
cal plants and trees not indigenous to the West Indies. 
The garden was opened in 1763, but given up in 1828, 
and many of the plants removed to Trinidad. Here 
are still found the teak, mahogany, almond, screw- 
pine, Malacca-apple, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, pi- 
mento and areca palm, a grove of palmistes, bread- 
fruit, bread-nut and cannon-ball trees. The latter is 
very interesting, growing to a great height, with large 
bole and branches, along which grow twigs and shoots 
so thickly that they resemble a vine entwining them ; 
on these grow great flowers which look like the 
sarracenias of northern climes ; stamens and pistils 
are packed away inside half a dozen protecting petals. 
The petals are of a delicate rose-color, recurved upon 
themselves ; when the blossom bursts it looks as rough 
as the bristling burr of a chestnut. The fruit is as 
large as a six-pounder cannon-ball ; it is spherical, 
russet brown in color, and very heavy. They are 
continually growing and dropping ; and are of no 
apparent use except to stir idle people into activity, by 
falling on their heads — people who might otherwise 
be tempted to recline beneath the tree. 

Mango and cinnamon, introduced into Jamaica by 
Lord Rodney, were sent here also ; nutmeg from 
Cayenne, in 1809; clove from Martinique, in 1787, 
where it was introduced from the East Indies. It was 
thought that these species would become abundant and 
profitable, but such seems not to have been the case. 
The nutmeg has best repaid the efforts made for its 



ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 



237 



introduction and pres- 
ervation, and has 
grown into trees of 
great size, appearing 
at a distance like well- 
trimmed orange trees. 
The male trees, in 
February, were just 
flowering, while the 
female trees hung 
thick with nuts re- 
sembling our walnuts 
before the) 7 burst their 
husk. Some of these 
nuts had burst their 
outer covering, dis- 
closing the mace ly- 
ing between the out- 
er shell and an inner 
one inclosing the nut, 
of a rich vermilion 
hue, and possessing 




Cocoa Palm, Bread-fruit. 



a warm, spicy taste. There are several nutmeg groves 
throughout the island, though but little attention is 
paid to their cultivation. The income from each 
nutmeg tree in bearing is estimated at five dollars per 
year — a pound sterling per season. 

The clove did not prove so successful as the nut- 
meg, though its cultivation is attended with little labor 
and the profits sure. A very instructive account of 
experiments in clove culture is that of a gentleman 
in Dominica, who wrote in 1796. For several years 
he persevered on his estate, Montpelier, in the hills 



238 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

of Dominica. From the first two trees in bearing 
he gathereS seven pounds of cloves ; he then had, 
six years after commencing to plant, fifteen hundred 
growing trees. Probably, even if this attempt was 
successful, nothing farther was ever done by the other 
planters, so wrapped up were they in cane culture, 
and cane only. Montpelier is to-day gone to decay, 
difficult of access, with fields of waste land, and with- 
out inhabitants. A tradition only remains of clove 
and cinnamon-trees being found in the wild growth 
that covers the abandoned fields. 

A broad walk leads under the nutmeg-trees, from 
a little stream beneath the teak and mahogany, to 
Government House, the residence of the lieutenant- 
governor, — a long, low building, surrounded by a 
veranda, having in front a flower-garden in perpetual 
blossom, such a garden as only this climate is capable 
of producing, with a row of lovely areca palms, and 
vines in profusion adorning pillars and balustrades. 

We are constantly reminded of the East Indies and 
the South Seas by the numerous trees brought from 
those far-off regions. Not the least curious is the 
screw-pine, growing to the height of a tree, and bear- 
ing fruit that closely resembles the edible pine-apple. 

In the society of the governor, George Dundas, 
Esquire, C. M. G., I enjoyed many delightful hours. 
Like many another cultivated Englishman and Scotch- 
man, he was a zealous votary of Daguerre — an ex- 
cellent amateur photographer. To wealthy English 
amateurs, who have pursued the study of photography 
as a pastime, that science owes its greatest advance- 
ment, especially in recent times. In the " dry-plate " 
process — the process of the future — they have made 



BREAD-FRUIT AND COCOA-PALM. 239 

the greatest number of, and most valuable, discov- 
eries. Governor Dundas was an enthusiast, and ex- 
hibited to me many pictures, taken by himself, of the 
scenery of St. Vincent and Barbados. 

Of the many trees which were introduced into the 
West Indies none have proved so great a boon to 
the laboring classes, and bane to the planter, as the 
bread-fruit. It was at once a success, and from this 
garden of acclimatization many hundred plants were 
' distributed over the island. The tree would attract 
attention from the arrangement of its deeply-lobed 
leaves ; but the great balls of fruit, varying from five 
to eight inches in diameter, make it a conspicuous 
object even amongst tropical vegetation. Inside the 
shell, which when baked is hard, though thin, is a 
thick flesh like that of a melon. Though I cannot 
recall any substance that tastes exactly like it, it is 
certainly very good, and so nutritious that the natives 
of the islands in which it was discovered subsist upon 
it almost solely the year through. It is their "daily 
bread," indeed, and takes the place of the manufac- 
tured article entirely. It more than fills that place, 
for those who are dependent upon its bountiful har- 
vests need scarcely any animal food. The people in 
the favored country of its growth do not need to labor ; 
a score of trees planted by each man will furnish a 
supply of food for a lifetime, and he need concern 
himself about nothing else than sleeping and eating. 
In its fruitfulness it exceeds even the generous plan- 
tain, upon which the natives of the tropics subsist 
almost solely where the bread-fruit is not grown. It 
dispenses entirely with the labor of the agriculturist, 
the miller, the baker ; there need be no care for seed- 



24O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

time or harvest ; there is no threshing, no grinding, 
no kneading ; in fact, the islanders of the South Seas 
have their bread ready prepared, and have only to 
place it on the coals as they need it. 

In its native islands the tree bears for about eight 
months in the year. Toward the close of the fruitful 
period the natives lay the fruit in heaps and cover it 
with leaves, where it ferments ; the core attached to 
the stem is then pulled out, and the fruit, placed in a 
hole, changes from sweet to sour, after which it will 
keep until another season of fruitage. 

This allusion to the home of the bread-fruit very 
naturally recalls the story of its introduction into the 
West Indies — a story romantic, and worthy of fre- 
quent repetition. In 1797, in answer to a petition from 
the planters of the West Indies, the armed transport, 
the " Bounty," was fitted out for Otaheite, commanded 
by Lieutenant Bligh, who had been around the world 
with Cook. Her cabin was fitted with a false floor 
cut full of holes, sufficient to receive one thousand 
garden-pots. She was victualled for fifteen months, 
and carried trinkets for trade in the South Sea Islands. 
After many difficulties, being obliged to abandon the 
route intended and seek a new one, Lieutenant Bligh 
reached Otaheite. A tent was erected on shore to 
receive the trees, some thirty of which were potted 
every day. 

On the 4th of April, 1789, the " Bounty " set sail, with 
one thousand roots in pots, tubs, and boxes. On the 
27th broke out the mutiny which has become a matter 
of history. Lieutenant Bligh, with eighteen others, 
was placed in the launch, which was cut loose with 
one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight 



BREAD-FRUIT AND COCOA-PALM. 24I 

gallons of water, a little rum and wine, a quadrant 
and a compass. A few pieces of pork, some cocoa- 
nuts, and four cutlasses, were thrown to them as they 
were cast adrift. The nearest civilized land was the 
Dutch colony of Timoor, distant three thousand five 
hundred miles. This they reached in forty-one days, 
after incredible hardships and the loss of one man ; 
here they received hospitable treatment, and event- 
ually reached England. Ten of the mutineers were 
afterwards found and executed; the others removed 
to another island, where most of them led dissolute 
lives and miserably died. The history of Adams and 
his companions has been told in missionary tales so 
often that every one is familiar with its minutest de- 
tails. After sailing to Pitcairn's Island, in the Bounty, 
they burned her, extirpated the male inhabitants in 
three years, and laid the foundation of a colony upon 
which England looked with interest, even with favor. 

At a subsequent period Lieutenant Bligh was fur- 
nished with another vessel, in which he accomplished 
the object for which he was sent, and the bread-fruit 
was introduced into St. Vincent in 1793. In this 
island it flourished in greater abundance than in any 
other of the Caribbean chain, and aside from forming 
small groves on many of the plantations, it has ex- 
tended its range into the forest-borders, and may be 
found in some of the deeper valleys in a wild state, a 
companion of the " trumpet tree," which somewhat 
resembles it in appearance. 

There was a hollow, near my Carib cabin in St. 

Vincent, between two high hills, the center deepening 

to a gutter where generally ran a little brook. Up 

the bed of this gutter I climbed one day, at noon, first 

16 



2 4 2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 







n 




p* past a clump of 
cacaos, shaded 
by tall trees, and 
then past a group of 
groo-groo and gris-gris 
palms. These palms are 
erect and straight, but 
aside from their own 
graceful beauty, they are 
enriched and encircled by 
a clustering vine, throw- 
ing out a mass of large, 
perforated leaves. This 
vine climbs up the trunk 
by clinging closely — a 
slender thread of a vine, 
WS3@SB&i&8&gS l & which throws out, when 
f^^^^^^^^M * ' li nas attained a certain 

$'v -S^^^^^^^^^K height:, a cluster of leaves. 

^ %K. >*<'~: '-'--7 ■• :■-- .- : •-•'.-'^f> & 

of^^l^fv^;^ ^IMj- As there are numberless 
«»* - s -^gM^r* %-# ^^ 

if ~-f climbers, and as each 



PC 



pROO-pROO ^ALM. 



BREAD-FRUIT AND COCOA-PALM. 243 

sends out its leaves in a group, the tree is sometimes 
inclosed in a pyramidal column from top to bottom, 
most beautiful to see. 

The groo-cjroo is most abundant on the coast and 
plentifully besprinkles the woods of the hillsides ; it 
can be seen anywhere in long ranks on the ridges, 
and in clumps and groups by the roadside. It is not 
as tall as either the cocoa or the palmiste, is stouter 
than the mountain palm, and with a denser head 
than either of them. Its leaves are curled laterally 
from the mid-rib, and droop feathery and plume-like. 
It covers all the hills and upper valleys along the sea- 
coast, and seems to take the place the tree-fern oc- 
cupies in similar localities in other islands. 

All the palms are beautiful : the mighty palmiste, 
towering to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, 
with its column-like trunk and spreading head of long 
leaves, is unsurpassed in grandeur. The cocoa palm, 
perhaps, is the most picturesque, as its stem is so 
slender, and its loose leaves droop so gracefully, wav- 
ing with every breeze, ever and anon disclosing its 
wealth of fruit. Nothing can be more picturesque 
than a cocoa bending above a thatched hut ; than a 
group of cocoas on the bank of a stream reflecting 
back their beauty. If utility were considered, then 
certainly the cocoa would bear away the falm, as it 
assuredly is the palm of this tropic zone. The moun- 
tain palm, found only in the high woods and on 
elevated ridges, has a slenderer stem, and its long 
leaves give it a resemblance to the cocoa. The 
areca palm, the seeds of which are used with the 
famous betel nut, with small straight stem and a 
single tuft of plumes, is a very ornamental tree. No 



244 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

matter which species of palm I look upon, I am 
tempted to say, this is the most beautiful ! 

But to return to the groo-groo and gris-gris. The 
former rises straight up, with a gray trunk, scarred 
all the way up with little circles left by former 
leaves, fusiform, swelling out in the middle like the 
main-boom of a ship, supporting a solid head of leaves, 
which are curled like the heated feathers of an ostrich 
plume, and form a dense ball almost circular in shape. 
At the base of these leaves springs out a branching 
stem covered with the seeds which, when ripe, are 
black, like small grape-shot, and sheltered by a 
spathe shaped like a shield. Both trunk and leaf- 
stalks are covered, especially in young trees, with 
black spines ; which detract from its beauty some- 
what in the estimation of one who has stepped upon 
them. The seeds are made into a variety of chate- 
laine ornaments, as they are black and hollow, and 
take a fine polish. The wood is black as ebony, and 
is also susceptible of a high degree of polish. 

Scarcely had these observations on the palms been 
written down when my retreat was invaded by a 
buxom Indian girl of fourteen or fifteen, carrying a 
cutlass. She stood by the stream for some time, 
wondering, perhaps, what " buckra " was doing there : 
comely features, black braids of hair, shapely limbs, 
short and ragged dress. She was even more pictu- 
resque than all the palms. And if there could be a 
more attractive picture, it was when she returned, an 
hour later, bearing on her head an immense bunch of 
plantains, and stood poised upon a rock, where she 
lingered for some time gazing at her image in the 
stream. 



GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 245 



CHAPTER XV. 

GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 

BEQUIA. — CONTENTED ISLANDERS. — THE " BEQUIA SWEET." — ■ 
CARIB ANECDOTE. — UNION ISLAND. — CANOUAN. — AN ENER- 
GETIC PATRIARCH. — CARIACOU. — ON THE ANCIENT CONTI- 
GUITY OF THE LESSER ANTILLES. — THE LOST ATLANTIS. — 
" WHAT IF THESE REEFS WERE HER MONUMENT ?" — A GLANCE 
AT THE MAP. — AN ISOLATED GEOGRAPHICAL AND ZOOLOGI- 
CAL PROVINCE. — GRENADA. — ST. GEORGE'S. — MORE CRA- 
TERS. — THE CARENAGE. — THE FORTS. — THE LAGOON. — THE 
" EURYDICE." — IGUANAS. — THEIR HABITS. — IGUANA-SHOOT- 
ING. — OYSTERS GROWING ON TREES. — COLUMBUS AND HIS 
PEARLS. — LIZARDS. — A MISSIONARY'S GRIEF. — FOOD OF THE 
IGUANA. — THE MANGROVE. — CACAO. — ITS DISCOVERY. — PRES- 
ENT RANGE. — ITS CULTIVATION. — CACAO RIVER. — COCOA AND 
CACAO. — THE TREE. — THE FRUIT. — THE FLOWER. — IDLE NE- 
GROES. — CHOCOLATE. — FOREST RATS. — MONKEYS. — THEIR 
DEPREDATIONS. — AN INSULT. 

THE GRENADINES, a great number of islets 
forming a connecting chain between the islands 
of St. Vincent and Grenada, extend over a degree of 
latitude. They are small and low-lying, many of them 
being merely rocks protruding from the water, with- 
out rivers, little cultivated, with no communication 
with the larger islands except by small boats, and 
yet some of them densely populated. The largest of 
these is Bequia, nearest to St. Vincent, which is six 
miles in length and above a mile in breadth, with 



246 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

a range of hills eight hundred feet in height. The 
character of soil and people of every island of the 
Grenadines may be summed up in the following para- 
graph from the "West India Pilot" : 

" Bequia has no running streams, and there is no 
watering-place. There are some wells at the head 
of the bay, but the water is not very good. Wood is 
plentiful, and may be obtained by permission from the 
owners, but it is doubtful if the natives would cut it. 
Poultry may be had occasionally in small quantities, 
and sometimes fish, but vegetables never." 

The people are apathetic. The sea yields them 
sufficient for the day ; of cotton and sugar their lands 
produce sufficient to supply them with commodities 
not obtainable from the sea. The contrast between 
these silent, sleepy islands, whose people are content 
to exist and will not work, and an island like Bar- 
bados, where the negroes all must work or starve, 
and where they harass a visitor nearly to the verge 
of insanity, is refreshing. Some of the islets, like 
Balliceaux and Battowia, are owned by single indi- 
viduals, or firms, who raise there cattle and sheep ; 
all are well stocked with wild doves, plover and ducks 
in their season, and their rocky shores are surrounded 
by myriads of sea-fowl. 

In Bequia, and extending throughout the chain, 
is a blackbird — a new species named the £>iiiscalus 
luminosus — which makes the air resound with its 
joyous cry : " Bequia sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet." 
The Caribs told me of this bird several months be- 
fore I. obtained it, as its peculiar cry had caused it to 
be marked by them. They had preserved a touching- 
story of its connection with Carib captivity, when the 



GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 247 

Indians were confined in the small island of Balli- 
ceaux. 

The island in which they were prisoners was low 
and dry, without a tree large enough to shelter them 
from the sun ; a few miles distant, full in sight, was 
the island of Bequia, six times theirs in size, with high 
hills covered with green forests. To them it was as 
Paradise ; they longed for its breezy hills, sighed for 
the cool shade of its trees, but sighed in vain. De- 
prived of their canoes, of houses, of material for con- 
structing more than slight shelter, these poor people 
lay gasping beneath a tropic sun, gazing at the misty 
mountains of their native island and the green slopes 
of Bequia, without a possibility of reaching either. 
All about them the blackbirds sang praises of the dis- 
tant island : " Bequia sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet." 
Though St. Vincent is but ten miles distant, the black- 
bird is never seen there, affording but one of many 
peculiarities in the distribution of animals throughout 
these islands. 

The natives of the Grenadines display a love for 
their islands not easily understood by a resident of 
more fertile and more attractive lands. I can under- 
stand this, but can hardly explain it. There is a feel- 
ing born of the isolation, of the very barrenness of the 
land, of the loneliness of an island, that attracts one 
to it, especially if one there had his birth and passed 
his earlier years. 

We steamed out of Kingston Bay and down along 
the lovely Grenadines. Their appearance is that of 
a nearly submerged line of mountains. Sometimes a 
whole ridge is exposed ; again, a conical peak or 
a mound of green just appears above the water. 



248 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Union Island and Cariacou, seemingly near together, 
with a few water-surrounded peaks between them, 
are whole chines of ridges. The latter has a well- 
cultivated appearance, and on some hillsides are 
houses thickly clustering. Grenada appears a cloud- 
line when we are off Union Island, and gradually 
emerges from the haze as we draw nearer, purple in 
hue, of course, long, but not so high as St. Vincent 
and the islands north. Canouan, half-way down the 
Grenadines, appears small and dry, but the white 
houses gleaming from a hill-top give it a cheerful 
look. Canouan is principally inhabited by one fam- 
ily, the descendants of one man, who has success- 
fully emulated the patriarchs of old in the extent of 
his family, if not in his domain. 

Many years ago — I don't know just how many — 
he came to Canouan, bringing slaves, it is said by 
some, finding there a colony of blacks, it is said 
by others. At all events, he set himself up as a 
patriarch, and commenced a church. So successful 
was this good man, whose name was Snagg, so suc- 
cessful were his efforts in ameliorating the color and 
condition of those around him, that the entire chain 
has felt his influence. This zealous missionary had 
a brother, an English baronet ; and it is related by 
those who cruise the Grenadines, that one cannot visit 
any isle in this archipelago without encountering some 
brown-skinned descendant of the missionary, who 
boasts offensively of "my uncle, Sir William Snagg." 

Union Island is black and gloomy from the east, 
as we coast along, indicating a virgin vegetation and 
little cultivation. Its sharp, serrated outline, remind- 
ing one of a line of snow-drifts after a heavy mid- 



GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 249 

winter storm when a fierce wind has swept along, 
leaving them comhed or sharply cut, suggests either 
immense denuding, eroding floods, or upheaval. 

Were these islands once connected with the main 
land of either continent? How otten this question 
arises in one's mind as he gazes on these mountains 
peering above the sea ! Did they, in the language 
of Humboldt, ''belong to the Southern continent, and 
form a part of its littoral chain," or have they been 
upheaved from the depths of the sea? The great 
naturalist thus refers to these islands and the various 
theories regarding their origin : " The supposition of 
an oceanic irruption has been the source of two other 
hypotheses on the origin of the smaller West India 
islands. Some geologists admit that the uninterrupted 
chain of islands from Trinidad to Florida exhibits the 
remains of an ancient chain of mountains. The)' - con- 
nect this chain sometimes with the granite of French 
Guiana, sometimes with the calcareous mountains of 
Paria. Others, struck with the difference of geo- 
logical constitution between the primitive mountains 
of the Greater and the volcanic cones of the Lesser 
Antilles, consider the latter as having risen from the 
bottom of the sea. In opposing the objections of some 
celebrated naturalists, I am far from maintaining the 
ancient contiguity of all these smaller West India 
islands. I am rather inclined to consider them as 
islands heaved up by fire, and ranged in that regular 
line of which we find striking examples in so many 
volcanic hills in Mexico and in Peru. The geological 
constitution of the archipelago appears, from the little 
we know respecting it, to be very similar to that of 
the Azores and the Canary Islands. Primitive forma- 



25O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

tions are nowhere seen above ground ; we find only 
what belongs unquestionably to volcanoes." 

We would fain connect these mountain-peaks with 
a submerged continent, a continent that extended over 
the vast space now occupied by the Caribbean Sea, 
and into the Atlantic far over toward the coast of 
Africa. We are ready to believe that the "lost At- 
lantis " of the ancients is not a myth, that it is not a 
"fabled island," but had a real existence, and that the 
land discovered by those Tyrian navigators who sailed 
beyond the Pillars of Hercules and were driven by a 
storm many days westward, was part of a continent 
now beneath the waves — the eastern shore of a region 
which these mountains once traversed; for — 

"Who knows the spot where Atlantis sank ? 
Myths of a lovely drowned continent 
Homeless drift over waters blank ; 
What if these reefs were her monument? 
Isthmus and cavernous cape may be 
Her mountain summits escaped from the sea." 

The early geological history of the area occupied 
by the Caribbean Sea, its coasts and its islands, has 
excited the attention of many eminent scientific men, 
and much light has been afforded by the study of the 
land and marine faunas and of the geological forma- 
tion of the islands and adjacent coasts. The con- 
clusions reached by the later scientists are, that the 
West Indian islands present the remains of a sunken 
continent. Says that eminent naturalist, Wallace : 
"The West Indian islands have been long isolated 
and have varied much in extent. Originally, they 
probably formed part of Central America, and may 
have been united with Yucatan and Honduras in one 



GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 25 1 

extensive tropical land." These remarks apply to the 
Greater Antilles, probably, and do not preclude Hum- 
boldt's hypothesis that the Lesser Antilles are islands 
"heaved up by fire." 

At a meeting of the National Academy, held in 
Washington, in April, 1879, Professor Agassiz read a 
report of his dredging operations during the previous 
winter, expressing the opinion that he had brought to 
light the outlines of old continents, of which the islands 
enclosing the Caribbean Sea are the remnants. Mr. 
Bland, of New York, the well-known conchologist, 
who has especially studied the land-shell distribution 
of the West Indies for many years, adds his testimony 
as to the continental character of the faunas of the dif- 
ferent West Indian islands. 

And these few general remarks upon the Lesser 
Antilles as a whole lead me to call the reader's atten- 
tion to their regularity of position, as shown upon the 
map. It will be seen that the distance between any 
two adjacent islands lying between St. Vincent and 
Barbuda, is about thirty miles : from Barbuda to 
Antigua, from Antigua to Montserrat, Montserrat to 
Guadeloupe, from the latter to Dominica, from Do- 
minica to Martinique, Martinique to St. Lucia, St. 
Lucia to St. Vincent. A sixty-mile circuit, with 
Grenada as a center, touches St. Vincent, Tobago, 
and Trinidad, and includes all of the Grenadines. 

The almost semicircular line they describe cannot 
but be noticed ; nor will it fail to be sucrcrested to the 
most casual observer that, if not vestiges of a con- 
tinent, these islands once formed a continuous barrier 
between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean ; 
though facts may prove the contrary. I may also 



252 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

remark, in passing, that the avi-fanna, the bird-life, of 
this cluster of islands is as distinct and isolated from 
that of Tobago, Trinidad, and South America, as is 
the geographical position of the group. 

Grenada is the southernmost of these volcanic islands 
and terminates in latitude twelve, north, the Caribbee 
chain. It is a little over eighteen miles in length and 
seven in breadth, and is very rugged, the interior of 
the island being one mountain ridge with its offsets, 
and there is a lesser comparative area of fertile land 
than in St. Vincent. The mountains are volcanic ; 
there are several extinct craters, in the largest of 
which there is an attractive lake two and one-half 
miles in circumference, two thousand feet above the 
sea. 

St. George's, the only port of any size, lies on the 
south-western coast, its walled fort, St. George, oc- 
cupying a bold promontory commanding the town, 
along and over the ridge of which it is built. With 
its deep, fissure-like harbor, its sandy " carenage," 
its white-walled houses of stone, its encircling, 
battlemented hills seven hundred feet in height, St. 
George's, harbor and town, is highly picturesque. 

We reached the harbor at night, but our captain 
dared not enter, and stood off and on till morning. 
The sky was ablaze with stars, and the Southern Cross 
appeared when the clouds passed. Two planets glowed 
in the sky till sunrise, streaming fire from out the 
murky clouds and casting bright reflections on the 
water. 

The harbor of St. George's seems to have been 
formed by volcanic forces, as it is hardly more than a 
narrow fissure, and the hundred-fathom line of sound- 



IGUANAS AND LIZARDS. 



253 




Saint George's 

incrs is onlv a little over a mile from the fort. Veins 
of deep water extend in from the sea, on both sides of 
which the water is quite shallow. 

Making out from the harbor proper is a bay or 
lagoon, about a mile in depth, where are sandy 
beaches bordered by mangrove swamps. Behind this 
bay, ascending the hills, is the estate of Belmont, 
where resided a gentleman to whom I had letters of 
introduction, Chief Justice Gresham, who, like the 
good governor of St. Vincent, was an amateur photog- 
rapher of great ability. Very naturally, I gravitated 
toward Belmont soon after landing, and passed a 
pleasant week on and about the estate. iVmong some 
excellent photographs which his Honor gave me, was 



254 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

one of the unfortunate " Eurydice," taken by the judge 
as she lay under the walls of Fort St. George, just 
prior to her departure for England on the voyage that 
had such a terrible ending. 

Skirting the belt of mangroves bordering the lagoon, 
one morning in March, I anxiously searched the in- 
tertwined branches for iguanas. Grenada is celebrated 
as being the home of great numbers of these reptiles, 
which may often be found basking on old walls within 
the limits of the town. My boatman was a negro, who, 
accustomed to the appearance of the iguana in the 
trees, discovered one long before I could distinguish 
the difference between green reptile and green leaves. 
Even after it had been pointed out, I had difficulty in 
recognizing it, so nearly did its colors harmonize with 
those of the tree in which it was feeding. 

It lay quite still, stretched flat upon a branch, its tail 
hanging down like that of a snake. Though it was 
evidently suspicious of our intentions, its quiet was 
not due to that alone, for it is naturally a sluggish 
animal. Yet, when once thoroughly aroused, it will 
dash over the ground at great speed. I fired, yet it 
still clung tenaciously to the bough, and a second shot 
did not kill it, for it would have escaped had not my 
boatman pinned it with an oar, after it had fallen into 
the mud. From one that we captured that morning, 
the man with me procured a dozen large, white eggs, 
which he saved to eat. 

As we rowed along, the breaking of overhanging 
branches was accompanied by the crackling of shells, 
as the oysters, clinging to the roots and branches, 
closed their shells at the disturbance. Some of these 
ovsters were more than a foot above water, where they 



IGUANAS AND LIZARDS. 255 

had been left by the tide. The sight of them, hanging 
there with gaping mouths, brought to mind the cruise 
of Columbus in the bay of Paria, only one hundred 
miles south of this island of Grenada. He was in 
search of pearls, and " he had read in Pliny, that pearls 
were generated from drops of dew which fell into the 
mouths of oysters. There were great numbers of 
mangroves growing within the water, with oysters 
clinging to their branches, their mouths open — as he 
supposed — to receive the dew which was afterwards 
to be transformed into pearls." 

The order Sauria, the lizard order, is well repre- 
sented in the West Indies, though in none of the 
smaller islands between Porto Rico and Trinidad is 
to be found that greatest of the saurians, the alligator. 
The Indians of Dominica, to whom I described the 
alligator, were greatly amazed to hear of a "lizard" 
twelve feet in length, as they had never seen one 
larger than the iguana, which seldom attains a greater 
length than five feet, and is as mild in disposition as 
the alligator is sanguinary. The islands, especially 
the shores, are teeming with lizards of every color, 
of every variety of marking, and of all sizes. 

Especially do they love the cliffs, and if you are 
walking through the bushes at the base of any sunny 
precipice, or over any rocky tract, you will be startled 
by the frequent dashes made by these reptiles across 
your path. In a country where you must keep every 
sense on the alert, to guard against sudden surprise 
by serpents or poisonous insects, it is very annoying, 
often startling, to be so frequently disturbed by these 
active creatures. In the mountains are fewer species, 
and they are more sluggish, but in the warm lowlands 



256 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

you must be very active to capture one. The little 
negro and Indian boys are very expert at it and catch 
them by means of slip-nooses of grass, attached to the 
ends of sticks, which they pass over the heads of the 
lizards as they lie asleep in the sun. They are not 
poisonous, though repulsive to many, and though 
some of them will bite severely, they do not inflict 
dangerous wounds. 

There are many hideous forms, especially among 
those of South America, like the Basilisk and the 
Flying Dragon ; but in the West Indies there is none 
of more hideous appearance than the iguana. Never 
was more harmless creature invested with more fright- 
ful aspect. Clothed with scales, like the alligator, 
but finer and more flexible, with a long, slender and 
powerful tail, a gular pouch, hanging like a dew-lap 
beneath its throat, and having along its back from 
head to tail a crest of spines, it would not be attractive 
were it not for its beautiful colors of varying green and 
yellow, and its brightly glancing eye. In the islands 
where it exists it is eagerly sought as food, and its 
flesh is palatable and delicate, as I can testify from 
experience, being white, tender, and nutritious. 

The good father Pere Labat (worthy missionary 
and bon vivant withal) compares fricasseed guana to 
chicken for the whiteness of its flesh and delicacy of 
its flavor. He gives a delightful account of catching 
one, two hundred years ago : 

"We were attended by a negro who carried a long 
rod, at one end of which was a piece of whip-cord 
with a running knot. After beating about the bushes 
for some time, the negro discovered our game basking 
in the sun on the dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he 



IGUANAS AND LIZARDS. 257 

began whistling with all his might, to which the 
guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching out his 
neck and turning his head as if to enjoy it more fully. 
The negro now approached, still whistling, and ad- 
vancing his rod gently, began tickling with the end 
of it the sides and throat of the guana, who seemed 
mightily pleased with the operation, for he turned on 
his back and stretched himself out like a cat before 
the fire, and at length fell asleep, which the negro 
perceiving, dexterously slipped the noose over his 
head, and with a jerk brought him to the ground. 
And good sport it afforded, to see the creature swell 
like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We 
caught more in the same way, and kept one alive 
seven or eight days *, but it grieved me to the heart to 
find that he thereby lost much delicious fat." 

The iguana eats only vegetable food, and passes 
most of its time in the trees, though it has holes to 
which it can retire. The mangrove is its favorite 
resort, and many have I seen lying along the branches 
feeding upon the leaves. This tree, though not ma- 
jestic, nor really beautiful, is extremely interesting 
from the aerial character of its roots. Growing on 
the border of the ocean, so near that the waves lap 
against its stem, and in salt-water lagoons, where the 
water is shallow and the mud very deep, it sends 
forth numberless roots from above the water, which 
strike out in all directions, and finally seem to lift it 
up as though upon a trestle-work. It is thus a curious 
sight ; and as these mangroves grow in masses, their 
roots form an intricate and impenetrable network, be- 
neath which all sorts of marine and sea-side shell-fish 
and vegetation abound. 
17 



258 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Though cacao grows in all the islands of the Carib- 
bean Sea, I found it most abundant in Grenada, where 
it shares with sugar exclusive cultivation, finding a 
soil and climate most suitable for its perfect growth. 
This plant was discovered in Mexico by the Span- 
iards, who invaded that country in 15 19; we read, in 
the " True History of the Conquest of Mexico," by 
Captain Bernal Diaz, " one of the conquerors," that 
fruit of all the kinds the country produced was laid 
before Montezuma ; " he eat very little, but from time 
to time a liquor prepared from cocoa, and of a stimu- 
lative or corroborative quality, as we were told, was 
presented to him in golden cups. We could not at 
that time see if he drank it or not, but I observed a 
number of jars, above fifty, brought in filled with 
foaming chocolate." 

Its adoption and introduction was rapid, and now it 
flourishes nearly all over the tropical world, and in the 
Lesser Antilles and along the northern coast of South 
America it grows in perfection. 

Much confusion exists regarding the names of two 
totally distinct vegetable productions : the cocoa, the 
palm which bears the nut, and the cacao, from which 
chocolate is made — words so nearly alike that even 
great men have used them interchangeably, much 
to the bewilderment of the student of tropical flora. 
The cocoa palm is the Cocos nucifera, and by some 
the generic name of cocos has been abbreviated into 
coco, which is the French and Spanish name also. 
Grand old Linnaeus gave to the cacao the beautiful 
name, Theobroma — food for gods — and Theobroma 
cacao is the name by which it is known to botanists. 

Unlike the towering cocoa, with smooth shaft, 



CACAO. 259 

crowned. with waving branches, a notable object in 
surrounding vegetation, the cacao seldom reaches a 
height of over thirty feet, and would be passed by 
without notice, were it not for its peculiar fruit. It 
flourishes only in damp valleys, on the sides of shady 
hills, and embosomed among mountain forests, where 
the surrounding scenery is eminently interesting. 

So little care does it need, and growing, as it does, 
in soil so rocky that it will produce nothing else, 
nearly every negro in the island has a few trees 
around his hut, which yield him sufficient for his 
simple wants. I found this to operate greatly to my 
disadvantage, where, among the mountains, all lug- 
gage must be transported on the heads of the people, 
as I could get no one to carry my camping equip- 
ments. By the aid of a half crazy mulatto, named 
Maunie, I was able to reach a valley on the eastern 
side of the mountain range ; but once there he left 
me, and for several days I was obliged to remain 
among the cacao groves, unable to return. My stay 
was made delightful by the attentions of the physician 
of the district, Doctor Lang, and the parish priest, 
Canon Bond, both genial and cultivated gentlemen. 
Through the valley ran the largest river in the 
island, Cacao River, which in the rainy season over- 
flowed its banks and committed great havoc among 
the trees of the cacaotiere, or cacao grove. The trees 
grow to the height of twenty feet, some to thirty, 
with a leaf something like that of the chestnut. The 
tops of the trees are intergrown, forming dense shade, 
beneath which, among the smooth stems, one can 
walk in comfort even at noon. Dead and fallen 
leaves strew the ground thickly, even as the chestnut 



260 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

leaves in autumn, and all around are little heaps of 
opened pods, from which the pulp has been taken and 
the seeds extracted. 

The tree is about as long- in attaining its growth as 
the orange tree ; it may produce in the third year 
from the seed, but does not reach its full bearing 
period until at the age of seven or eight, It is a 
tender plant during the first stages of its growth, and, 
like the coffee, must be shaded by some broad-leaved 
plant like the plantain or banana, which, of quicker 
growth, are set out near the seed at time of planting. 
Heat and moisture are indispensable to its existence, 
but one without the other proves fatal to its growth. 

We may consider it as a blessing or a curse to the 
islands, according to the light in which we view it. 
As the bread-fruit is reckoned by the planters as a 
curse, because it enables the negro to live without 
work, and deprives the plantations of his labor, so the 
cacao, by giving its cultivators a certain income with- 
out toil, after the first few years of its growth, induces 
the production of an idle, and consequent^ insolent, 
population. Once started in life with an acre or so of 
cacao trees, the negro asks for nothing more, his wife 
and children gather the harvest, and he enjoys an 
idle existence as only a negro knows how. 

The fruit of the cacao resembles somewhat an 
overripe cucumber about six inches in length, oval 
and pointed. Many of the pods grow right out of 
the trunk of the tree, hanging by short stems, and 
remind one of tailless rats. They are beautifully 
colored, varying according to the specimen and the 
progress towards maturity ; some are green, some 
yellow, crimson or purple, some variegated by veins 



CACAO. 26l 

of different colors. Each pod is divided into five 
longitudinal cells, containing a sweetish, agreeable 
pulp, in which are enveloped the seeds, from twenty 
to thirty in number, a white, pulpy substance in a thin 
shell. When the fruit is mature it is gathered, and 
the seeds removed and dried ; sometimes they are 
buried in sand or dry earth for the purpose of absorb- 
ing the moisture and pulp adhering to them. 

Great care is necessary in curing them, as they 
mold easily, and the planters generally provide large 
platforms on wheels, upon which the seeds are spread, 
which they run out from under a shelter, on sunshiny 
daws, and keep an old negro on the watch for rain. 
When perfectly dry, the seeds are put in bags for ship- 
ment to England. The native method of preparing 
chocolate from the seeds, is to roast them, and grind 
finely on a warm, smooth stone. When well kneaded 
it forms a tenacious paste, which, with the addition of 
a little sugar, is made into small rolls, or sticks. This, 
in its pure state, is made into a delightful drink ; but, 
as prepared in places foreign to the country of its pro- 
duction, is largely adulterated. It is generally flavored 
with vanilla, or some other agreeable extract, this 
being the favorite. 

Happy and contented as the negro may be in his 
wealth of cacao trees T he is sometimes enraged at the 
depredations committed by the forest quadrupeds, for 
the rats, not content with the succulent sugar cane, 
eagerly seek out the sweet pulp of the cacao. Where 
monkevs are abundant, as in Grenada, they commit 
great havoc, not only gnawing holes in the pods as 
they hang on the trees, but carrying away all they 



262 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

can hold in their arms. In one of my monkey-hunting 
excursions I stopped at the house of a very agreeable 
planter, in the mountains. He declared that one year 
the monkeys nearly destroyed his crop ; and not only 
ate the cacao seeds, but brought the empty pods and 
placed them on his doorstep, thus adding insult to 
injury. 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 263 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

ZONES OF VEGETATION. — NAKED NEGROES. — THE ROAD TO 
THE MOUNTAINS. — THE GRAND ETANG. — QUADRUPEDS OF 
THE LESSER ANTILLES, EXTINCT AND LIVING. — THE ALCO. — 
PECCARY. — AGOUTI. — MANACOU. — ARMADILLO. — ■ RACCOON. — ■ 
A VISIT TO THE " TATOUAY TRAPS." — THE FOREST SURROUND- 
ING THE MOUNTAIN LAKE. — " HAGINAMAH " : IS IT A CARIB 
WORD? — "HOG-IN- ARMOR," NOT A CARIB WORD. — "LE MORNE 
DES SAUTEURS." — THE PLANTAIN SWAMP. — SIGNS OF MONK- 
EYS. — THE MONKEYS' LADDER. — HABITS OF WILD MONKEYS. 
— THE MAMMIE APPLE. — IN AMBUSH. — FEATHERED COM- 
PANIONS. — THE BETE ROUGE. — AN AGED MONKEY. — HIS CAU- 
TION. — DESCENDING THE LADDER. — MONKEYS, GIDDY AND 
GRAVE. — COUNTING HIS FLOCK. — THE MONKEY RECOGNIZES 
A BROTHER. — " SHOOT ! SHOOT ! " — A FREE CIRCUS. — A MAN, 
AND A BROTHER. — THE MONKEY-MAMMA. — HER TERROR. — 
AN IMPOLITIC IMP. 

THERE are monkeys in Grenada ; many a poor 
cultivator knows this to his cost. There are 
troops of monkeys, who thread the mazes of the moun- 
tain forest, living in the trees, scarce ever descending 
to earth. To get them, one must go to the moun- 
tains, must penetrate the great interior forests, and 
hunt patiently the dark woods encircling the moun- 
tain lake, the lake in the crater. He must camp by 
the lake in the crater to get the "crayters" by the 
lake. 



264 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

In this island there are two zones of vegetation and 
of animal life, that of the coast and that of the moun- 
tains. The shore lines are broken ; precipitous cliffs 
shoot up out of the sea and huge rocks stand out gray 
and bare, alternated by lovely bays. A vegetation of 
low growth covers the hills along the shore, affording 
shelter for few birds ; where a dense growth of vines, 
or a flowering shrub occurs, a cactus, or a frangi- 
panni, there may be found the humming-birds. The 
second zone, or belt, comprises that portion contain- 
ing the most luxuriant vegetation and the greatest 
variety of tropical forms. It may be roughly esti- 
mated as lying between one thousand and twenty-five 
hundred feet above the sea. ' Here are nearly all the 
birds of the lowland in profusion and man)' species 
not found below. To the mountains, then, I must go, 
if I would secure new birds or seek to slay a monkey. 

Leavino- the hot road that wound along the shore, 
I took another, beneath volcanic cliffs, rode beneath 
rustling palm-trees and out upon a river bank, where 
were congregated the washerwomen of the town. 
Cool were they in attire and in effrontery, as they 
waded knee-deep the shallows of the stream, reclined 
upon the rocks, or sat chatting upon the banks, with 
no raiment save a handkerchief wrapped about the 
loins. Old women, young women, girls and boys, and 
little "pick'nees" waded the stream, most of them 
naked as the rocks the river laved. Black were they 
as those traditional crows, and no raven's wing could 
be glossier than their shining skins. 

Half-way to the mountain lake is the little hamlet 
of Constantine, where, on a narrow ridge between 
two deep valleys, a little chapel overlooks other val- 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



265 



leys of palms to the sea. Above, the road is narrow 
and steep, but flagged with rough stones; it leads 
through diminutive forests of cacao, each with a little 
thatched hut as its center, and then houses and groves 
are left, and the high woods entered, cutting through 
banks of clay over which vines and trees lean, ready 
to fall. On the crest of the mountain-ridge, three 
miles from any neighbor, is a house surrounded by a 
cleared space ; flowers bloom in a little garden, and 




Pi 



Etai 



bananas wave tattered pennons in the wind. A ve- 
randa looks to the south, and a negro policeman looks 
at me as I ride to the door. This was the police sta- 
tion, the M Grand-Etang House;" and to the man in 
charge I gave a letter from his chief in town, directing 
him to aid, by all lawful means, my attempts to secure 
a monkey. 

From the elevated character of the region, the 
Grand Etang House was most unpleasantly cold at 
night ; rude blasts assailed it, and fierce tempests 



266 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

wrestled with it. In town, seven miles distant, the 
temperature was ten degrees hotter than here on the 
mountain-top, ranging from eighty to ninety. The 
sudden change in temperature chilled me ; the eleva- 
tion depressed me. There were hooks for hammocks, 
and an iron bedstead, but no mattresses ; the hooks 
were high up, and my hammock (a netted "Ashan- 
tee") from long use now bulged like a pudding-bag, 
consequently I was doubled up all night, neck to heels. 

The lake, elliptical in outline, two thousand feet 
above the sea, is in full view from the house. A 
range of mountains encloses all — two craters, and the 
dividing- ridge on which the house is built. An inner 
circle of hills, clothed in tropical trees, rises around 
the lake, forming the basin. 

The man in charge of the house, its sole occupant, 
had a number of traps, or dead-falls, set in the forest 
beyond the lake, for the agouti and armadillo. These 
two animals, with the monkeys, are about the only 
forest quadrupeds larger than an opossum remaining 
in these islands. At the time of their discovery, the 
Lesser Antilles possessed several species now exter- 
minated. The most interesting was a small animal 
like a dog, found by the Spaniards among the Indians 
of Haiti, a native of the New World, called by them 
the "alco." In St. Domingo there were no other dogs. 
It was a shy, gentle creature, and perfectly mute, and 
was as much beloved by the Indians as their children, 
being carried by them in their arms wherever they 
went. It is now extinct. The peccary, or " Mexican 
musk-hog," once abundant in these islands, has been 
exterminated from all but Tobago ; the hogs of Do- 
minica and St. Vincent being the domestic species 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 267 

run wild. The agouti {Dasyfirocta agouti), a rodent, 
native to the West Indies and South America, is the 
most abundant of any quadruped in the Antilles, being 
found in most of them at the present day. An opos- 
sum, said to have been introduced from South Amer- 
ica, called by the negroes the manicou, or manitou, 
is very numerous, and is a terror to the negroes' 
chickens. In Guadeloupe, alone of the chain, may 
yet be found the raccoon, though the present species 
is not considered an indigenous one. The armadillo, 
once common in every island, is now found only in 
Grenada and Tobago ; it is the nine-banded arma- 
dillo, called by the natives the "tatou," or "tatouay," 
and is nocturnal in its habits. 

To visit his "tatou traps," my new friend the black 
policeman, and myself, sallied forth earl)' in the morn- 
ing. In a few minutes we were out of sight of the 
house and in as deep a forest as any in these wilds. 
All forests of the " high-woods " resemble each other 
so much that, my description of those of Dominica and 
Guadeloupe will answer for this. They are composed 
of giant trees, woven together by masses of vines, 
through which a path must sometimes be hewn with 
the cutlass ; trees and vines are hidden beneath thou- 
sands upon thousands of air-plants and parasites, 
which are the most conspicuous vegetation of these 

forests. 

" Like restless serpents clothed 
In rainbow and in fire, the parasites, 
Starred with ten thousand blossoms, flow around 
The gray trunks." 

We passed through groves of the mountain palm, 
and here put to flight a mountain dove or two, and 



268 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

found a nest containing two coffee-colored eggs. It 
was built right in the center of a great parasite, a 
plant with broad leaves resembling those of the sym- 
plocarpus, attached to the stem of a tree, about four 
feet from the ground. A humming-bird or two dashed 
past us, and falling seeds, as we entered a tract of 
high trees, warned us that there were wood-pigeons 
in the leafy tops above us. All around was strewn a 
sweet fruit, like a yellow plum, called "penny-apiece," 
which is much enjo} r ed by the negroes and by the 
birds and agoutis. 

My friend stooped, pointed to some impressions of 
feet in the moist earth, and whispered, " Haginamah." 
They were tracks of the armadillo, though the black 
had designated them by a name unknown to me ; it 
had a Carib flavor to it. So I asked him if "hagina- 
mah " was a name for the armadillo, and he replied 
that it was ; " Haginamah and tatou same with arm'- 
dilla, sah." Here was a discovery — an animal that 
retained its original Carib appellation. 

In Grenada the Caribs once maintained supreme 
control ; they were fierce, and a terror to the inhab- 
itants of the continent, upon whose coasts they often 
descended. At the northern end of Grenada is a high 
bluff, descending to the sea in a precipice, over which, 
tradition relates, the last of the Caribs leaped in de- 
spair when pursued by their enemies. The cliff is 
yet known as the Hill of the Leapers — Le Mornt 
des Sauteurs. 

It rejoiced me to find, as I thought, a pure Carib 
name, handed down among the people of an island 
from which the Caribs themselves had been extinct 
a century ; but my pleasure was suddenly checked ; 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 269 

" Haginamah, sah, because him have amah, an' look 
like hog." Then I saw my mistake — hog-in-armor 
— an applicable name. 

We inspected several traps, but found no arma- 
dillos. When two-thirds around the lake, we came 
to the borders of a swamp containing acres of plan- 
tains and bananas in a semi-wild state. What a trop- 
ical forest — those huge plants rising fifteen feet above 
the ground, with their broad leaves flapping in the 
breeze ! It seemed as though I had been transported 
to a world directly beneath the equator. 

My companion enjoined caution now, for, the plan- 
tains being heavy with fruit, it was possible we might 
meet with monkeys, or at least such traces of them as 
might lead to the capture of one on the morrow. We 
floundered through the dark forest, the negro cutting 
a path with his cutlass through the fallen leaves which 
made a deposit sometimes waist-deep. In about the 
center of the swamp he stopped me, and pointed to 
the ground beneath an immense clump of plantains, 
where I saw some scattered fruit, torn from the de- 
pending stems above and thrown upon the ground, 
half eaten b}' those wasteful creatures, the monkeys. 
The bu*nches of plantains were some of them a load 
sufficient for a man to carry, and now and then there 
was a banana-plant, with a bunch of a hundred or 
more. These plants, all of them, must have origi- 
nated from some runaway negro's provision-ground, 
abandoned many years ago. 

Following a broken and interrupted trail, as indi- 
cated by fragments of banana and plantain, we finally 
traced the monkeys to the base of a high cliff form- 
ing part of the enclosing wall of the ancient crater. 



270 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Here we found the tree by which they descended 
from the heights above when they visited the banana 
swamp — an immense jiguier, which had grown out 
of a cleft in the rock, and had established itself on the 
face of the cliff by a hundred roots and rootlets, 
aerial and terrestrial, covering the rock with a mesh- 
work ; from the upper branches hung long lianas, like 
twisted cordage, down which monkeys would take 
delight in swinging themselves. Down this great 
natural ladder — the monkeys' highway — they always 
came, whence they scattered through the plantain 
groves. Often have they been hunted while there ; 
but upon the approach of any one, no matter how 
silently, their noise ceased at once, though they were 
grunting and barking noisily before ; and in a few 
minutes they could be heard hundreds of yards away. 

It is difficult to find them if wounded, as they hide, 
and cling tenaciously to bush and tree. While travel- 
ing (always among the tops of the highest trees) 
they grunt and bark like dogs, and while feeding they 
have a peculiar, low, murmuring chatter. They are 
invariably led by the oldest monkey, who is exceed- 
ing sly. 

The negro examined the ground where the monkeys 
seemed to have held a last sitting over their harvest 
of plantains, and declared they had been gone several 
hours. He thought they would return in the morning, 
as they have regular circuits of travel, appearing in 
one section in the morning, and in another miles away 
in the afternoon ; among the wild plantains and nut- 
trees -of the mountains in the evening, and carrying 
destruction to the cacao and nutmeg groves at dawn. 
I have seen heaps of cacao-pods, each with a small 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 27 1 

hole in it, an inch or so in diameter, where the monkey 
had thrust in his hand to scoop out the pulp. They 
gather the nutmegs also, but after biting the shell 
throw them away, not liking them. Yet they repeat 
this every time they visit a grove. 

The man decided it was better to leave the place 
till morning, and I yielded to his superior knowledge 
of monkeys, though I could not refrain asking why it 
was not as well to wait for them then. He turned 
upon me with : " You know macaque, oui! He heah 
now, and den he no heah ; umph ! " Throughout 
Grenada the natives speak French patois, and even 
those who claim to speak English cannot avoid giv- 
ing utterance to a French word now and then. 

We returned to the house, where I passed another 
wearisome night. People from St. George's passed in 
the evening on their way to La Bay, a distance of 
fourteen miles, carrying loads on their heads sufficient 
to stagger an Irish laborer. From a woman who 
came up from the negro village of Delphi I bought a 
Carib basket ; this art of basket-weaving having 
survived the Indians who practiced and taught it. 
The plant from which the baskets are made grows in 
the deep woods — a slender, reed-like shaft, with a 
coronal of leaves about a foot in length. 

A man shouted out to us at dark, as he passed, that 
a whole troop of monkeys came down to his grounds 
near his cacao, where he might have shot one had he 
tried ; and a woman also stopped and told us that an- 
other troop had been feasting on the " mammee trees " 
near her grounds, a few miles distant. Just before 
dark, our dog rushed out and barked furiously at 
something in a tall parrot-apple tree in the basin below 



272 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the house. We could just see that it was alive with 
monkeys, before they were gone. Between monkeys 
and dogs there is a strong feeling of antipathy ; the 
former take pleasure in annoying the latter, and will 
sometimes approach a house, when no one is in sight, 
and sit at a safe distance, " making faces" at the dog, 
who in turn nearly goes frantic with rage in vain 
attempts to reach them. 

At daylight, guided by a little black boy, I revisited 
the plantain swamp. It was full of gloom, and I sat 
down under a tree. Soon a black object descended 
the cliff, and I was about to fire, when my little guide 
whispered that it was only a wild-cat. Light appeared, 
the birds awoke, and the forest was vocal with sounds. 
The tree beneath which I had seated myself was a 
" mammee-apple," whose huge bole swelled out above 
me, and gnarled limbs stretched out and up, support- 
ing a dense canopy of leaves, among which hung 
clusters of fruit. This fruit is about as large as an 
orange, has a large stone, a thin rind of yellowish 
flesh, and tough, russet skin. The monkeys had left 
the ground strewn with fruit, which they had bitten in 
mere wantonness, and then thrown away. The many 
fresh leaves on the ground here also attested their 
recent visit. Behind me was the cliff, below me the 
waving plantains, surrounded by forest so dense as to 
hide the sky. 

A large, brown humming-bird frequently dashed at 
me with a "whoof, whoof," of its wings, halting in 
air to look at me, then darting off to return for an- 
other look, regarding me with suspicious eyes. Hum- 
ming-birds of the deep woods do not seem to be 
familiar with the presence of man, for repeatedly in 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 273 

the past two years I have been attacked, as it were, 
by them. Instantly they see me they will dart at my 
face, halting only a foot or so from it, or whirl in 
dizzy circles about me. The whir of their wings will 
often startle me, coming unexpectedly from some dark 
thicket in some walled-in river-bed, or from behind 
some great tree-trunk in the high woods. It is always 
in the mountain forest that this happens. I can call a 
few about me at any time, by imitating their excited 
cries ; they dart at once to ascertain the cause, with 
sharp, nervous chirps of alarm. Even when they have 
flown right into my face they will not be satisfied, but 
must perch near, and regard me for a while intently. 
If I then move, they dart at me with a chirp of in- 
dignant defiance, and at once disappear. 

The fragrance of the bitten fruit filled the air, and 
insects gathered on the broken skin, but no monkeys 
came to claim the remainder hanging on the tree. 
For nearly an hour a mountain dove had been " groan- 
ing " near me — the hollow moan they oft reiterate is 
aptly called a groan by the negroes. They have a 
soft, rapid flight, with a hollow shirr when startled or 
surprised in their flight by coming near you and 
suddenly altering their course. 

Eleven o'clock. The sun had long since shone 
through the trees above the cliff, yet the coolness of 
this dense wood was little abated. Birds in the tree- 
tops were shaking down berries now and then, and the 
wind showered down leaves, but no monkeys yet dis- 
turbed the branches above. Lizards leaped from 
bough to bough, climbing up the tree and pattering 
over the leaves ; they were pursuing one another 
everywhere, and caused many of the various move- 
18 






274 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ments in the trees that attracted my attention and 
made me look up anxiously, expecting monkeys. 

A little c^rthiola was building its nest ; he was 
actively at work and had nearly finished it, and was 
tearing strips from the dead and dry balisier with 
which to line it. It defended its nest with great spirit, 
and attacked any bird coming near. Now and then it 
robbed another nearly completed nest of material, 
making a squabble with its owner. 

By an intolerable itching, which no amount of 
scratching could allay, I became aware that my legs 
were covered with that insect pest of the tropics, the 
b£te rouge — an insect so small as to be scarcely visible 
to the naked eye, the bites of which cause great suf- 
fering. In the rainy season, especially, is this insect 
annoying; then one cannot walk in the grass without 
getting covered with it. It sometimes causes sores or 
ulcers, the result of scratching, and the only remedy 
is to cover the body with grease or oil. So intense 
became the pain that I could no longer remain quiet, 
and was dancing a frantic jig when my little darky 
pulled my coat and pointed to the cliff. 

The vines hanging from the limbs of the great tree 
were shaking, and a low murmur of many monkey 
voices announced the coming of the troop. A round 
head peeped forth from the leaves, a hairy face, that 
was directly withdrawn, and its place supplied by 
another, older apparently, and having a look on 
its wrinkled visage of preternatural wisdom. This 
wrinkled face was followed by a grisly body, and 
soon an immense old fellow was clinging to the lianas 
and swinging himself downward. He was followed 
by a score or more of others, tumbling promiscuously 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 275 

one over each other, clutching at the vines and at one 
another's tails. There. were old monkeys, fathers of 
families, with serious countenances, cautiously feeling 
their way, and sniffing the air ; matronly monkeys, 
with young ones clinging about their necks, a world 
of care and responsibility expressed in their faces ; 
young and frisky monkeys, who came trooping down, 
hand under hand, snatching at a tail here and there, 
or tweaking an ear, as they tumbled over the slow- 
going fathers and mothers, stopping a second now and 
then to bite the tail of some unfortunate baby-monkey, 
who would instantly set up a howl of anguish. 

Ah ! how those } - oung sports enjoyed themselves. 
They had not a care in the world ; the gray old patri- 
arch who had reconnoitred the situation had pro- 
nounced " all safe," and upon him rested the responsi- 
bility ; they would not burden themselves with care. 
They ogled the maiden monkeys — shy and coy were 
those virgin monkeys — and they snapped spitefully at 
any gallant who seemed disposed to take unwarrant- 
able liberties. They pressed upon the patriarch, who 
at once resented such unseemly haste and familiarity 
by seizing the nearest by the scruff of his neck, shak- 
ing him violently, and then, without moving a muscle 
of his solemn countenance, dropping him into a clump 
of parasites. 

This episode threw the foremost monkeys back upon 
the column, so that they were so densely crowded to- 
gether as to hide the cables ; they looked like a huge, 
braided string of onions. Then they stretched out 
again, over the hundred or so feet of lianas, a perfect 
chain, like an immense link of living sausages, and — 
though I do not claim to have discovered more than 



276 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Darwin — in my monkey chain there was not one 
missing link. 

At last they disappeared below the plantain-tops, 
and I could hear the old chief marshalling them at 
the foot of the cliff. " Hark ! " whispered the little 
negro by my side, " he old man counting him ma~ 
caque." True enough, the old man was counting his 
flock ; there was silence immediately after the descent, 
broken by grunts, as old gray-back tallied them off — 
" ump, ump, ump — go ! " 

It really seemed as though he gave the word ; and 
there is no doubt he did, as, at the last grunt, there 
was a scampering, and the monkeys scattered them- 
selves through the grove. Not so with the ancient ; 
he duly felt the weight of responsibility, and did not 
join the rest in their sport or search for food, but as- 
cended the ladder of vines, and perched himself in the 
fork of a limb overlooking the whole field. 

During this time I was most assuredly excited. By 
darting forward, when that chain of monkeys was sus- 
pended in mid-air, I could have got two good shots 
into them before they dispersed. But at least two 
motives restrained me : first, I wished to observe their 
actions; second, I shrank from killing creatures so 
human-like. The temptation was so strong, however, 
that I could only withhold myself by great effort, and 
was trembling with excitement. Again, what if there 
was some remote relation in that throng? or — what 
was more probable — some descendant of an ancestor 
in common with the little negro crouching by my side? 
Such thoughts restrained me. 

Meanwhile, the grove was alive with monkeys, 
tearino- down bunches of bananas and plantains, 



A MONKEY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 277 

scaling the mammee trees and twisting off the fruit. 
In a little while one of them reached the tree beneath 
which we sat; a young male, about half grown, re- 
joicing in his strength. The black monkey by my 
side could not rest, and urged me, in excited whispers, 
to shoot ! He at least had no misgivings on the score 
of relationship, even though the resemblance between 
the two — the monkey in the tree, and the African, 
the monkey on the ground — was strong enough to 
excite a smile. 

I think the monkey in the tree must have noticed 
this resemblance, for he saw us just then and stopped. 
The more he contemplated my companion, the stronger 
seemed to become his convictions that he had found a 
long-lost brother. He let himself down by his tail, 
and beckoned for the negro to come up ; and then 
commenced a series of evolutions that would have 
shamed an acrobat; all, evidently, with a desire of 
impressing his brother on the ground with the ad- 
vantages of an arboreal over a terrestrial mode of life. 
And the little sinner near me was all this time urging 
me to shoot that innocent animal in the tree, whose 
only fault consisted in being a monkey. But I could 
not. I would as soon have thought of shooting the 
clown who performed for my amusement in the circus, 
as of killing that little harlequin in the tree. I now 
regarded the whole thing as the "biggest show on 
earth," — as Barnum has it, — and would not sully the 
pure enjoyment of it by what, I could not help think- 
ing, would be murder in the first degree. 

The little man rn the tree swung himself into space 
and disappeared ; in a few minutes he came skipping 
gleefully along, followed by a monkey of maturer 



278 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

years, evidently his mother, about whose neck was 
dangling an infant a few months old. To her the 
delighted reprobate pointed us out ; inquiring, in mon- 
key language, probably, if those objects below were 
not " a man, and a brother." 

What a look of horror convulsed the old lady's face 
when she saw herself in such proximity to a dreaded 
man, an enemy to her race ! She turned about with 
such violence as to jerk loose the infant that clung 
about her neck, who fell to the ground. Maternal 
solicitude, even, could not arrest her flight, as she 
fled chattering to the vine-ladder, and hurriedly as- 
cended it, followed by her wondering son. 

A bark from the patriarch summoned the rest of the 
gang so quickly, that they slid over those lianas and 
out of sight behind the cliff, in less time than I can 
write it in. Not one remained, save that infant 
monkey on the ground, which was just recovering 
its scattered senses as little Jim darted forward to 
secure it. Quickly as Jim rushed out, the monkey 
was yet more agile, and gathered himself up and 
leaped into a clump of razor-grass. Into this the 
little negro dashed, regardless of the cuts of the 
cruel blades. 

The razor-grass is a terrible pest in these woods, 
climbing into trees and overhanging trails ; every 
leaf of it which touches you clings to you and cuts 
like a jagged-edged razor. Spite of his burning 
desire to capture a monkey, Jim was obliged to stop 
and disentangle himself, and before I had gained the 
scene, the monkey was in the lianas. Slowly and 
feebly it ascended, but I could not shake it down, and 
to shoot it was out of the question. 



A MONKKY HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



279 



As it reached the tree, its mother sprang to seize it, 
and glided with it into the forest, and I awoke to the 
fact that I had missed my opportunity, and had been 
spared the pain of slaying a monkey. 










■ - %i -f - 



WL&®@$ 



280 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 

from Crusoe's island, north. — frowning cliffs. — golden 
sands. — birth of a rainbow. — st. pierre. — the volcano. 

— our consul. — "old farmer's almanack," good for 
any latitude. — french breakfasts. — " long toms." — 
the widow and her weed. — patois. — costumes. — good 
claret. — poor calico. — market-women and washer- 
women. — gaudy garments. — profusion of ornaments. 

— jardin des plantes. — the shrine and the traveler's 
tree. — creole dueling-ground. — palm avenues. — the 
cascade. — sago and areca palms. — the lake. — 
land-snails. — lizards. — tarantulas. — the lance-head 
snake. — venomous and vengeful. — the mountain region. 

— hot springs. — an extinct volcano. — a holy city. — 
sabbath in the country. — warned of snakes. — have 
alligator boots. — the humble shrine. — a shriek. — 
narrow escape. — the crafty serpent. 

UP from Tobago, the island of Crusoe's adventures, 
I sailed, one week in June, for Barbados. Ten 
weeks of camp-life in that historic island had brought 
me rich returns, in rare birds and pictures of interest- 
ing scenes. The captain of a Nova Scotia schooner 
gave me passage from Barbados to the Isle of Marti- 
nique, good captain Rudolph, who navigated his vessel 
so skillfully that we sighted the mountains of Marti- 
nique'on the morning of the second day; the same 
mountains I had first looked upon eighteen months 
previously coming down from the north. 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 28l 

The wind was light ; flying-fish darted in all direc- 
tions ; little sharp-provved canoes came sailing in out 
of the distance, hailed us with cheerful bon jours, and 
disappeared again in the spray and mist. We sailed 
in under high, frowning cliffs, down which fell silver 
streams into the sea ; past broad fields of cane, smiling 
in the sunshine ; past long stretches of yellow sand, 
overtopped by silent palms ; beneath a towering gloomy 
mountain hiding its crest in cloud. A shower came 
down from those impending clouds and pattered over 
deck and sea, ending as suddenly as it had com- 
menced ; and a rainbow, born of the mist and the 
.sunshine, spanned the bay of St. Pierre from head- 
land to headland, dissolving at either end above a 
little fishin£-villa£e, bathing houses and boats, and 
nets, and beach, in glorious showers of light. 

A second time I sailed into the bay of St. Pierre, a 
second time looked upon the volcano rising above it. 
The town is about a mile in length, straggling at the 
north away down the coast, ending in scattered 
villages : and at one place, where a river makes a 
break in the cliffs, creeping up toward the mountains. 
A narrow belt between high cliffs and the sea, built 
into and under them ; the houses, of stone and brick, 
covered with brown earthen tiles, tier upon tier, climb- 
ing up to the hills. With the soft mellow tints of the 
tiles, the grays of the walls, the frequent clumps of 
tamarind and mango, and with the magnificent wall 
of living green behind it, St. Pierre strikes one as a 
beautiful town — until he comes to analyze it. Then, 
the windowless loopholes — there is hardly a square 
of glass in town, save in the stores — the flapping 
shutters, the conglomerate material used in its construe- 



282 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

tion, combine to produce a feeling of revulsion. But 
viewed from a vessel lying in the harbor, sufficiently 
remote to hide its incongruous elements, St. Pierre 
again appears charming, picturesque. 

Aside from the hills which embrace the town and 
come down to the sea in bold spurs, forming an arc 
with a chord three miles in length, there is the noble 
Montague Pelee, above four thousand feet in height, 
a mass of dark green with jagged outline, cleft into 
ravines and black gorges, down which run rivers in- 
numerable, gushing from the internal fountains of 
this great volcano. 

The streets are narrow but well-flagged, and every 
few squares is a fountain ; and adown the gutters 
through them all run swift streams, carrying to the sea 
the refuse of the city. St. Pierre is the commercial 
port of the island, and there are many stores filled 
with the wines and wares of France. There are a fine 
cathedral ; a theatre of large capacity, to which for 
three months each winter a troupe from Paris draws 
crowded houses ; a bishop's palace and governor's 
residence, with large and handsome barracks for 
the troops. 

Landing, I went, as a matter of course, to the con- 
sulate, where a picture of an eagle, grasping the red 
man's arrows, and digging his claws into a prostrate 
shield, smiled serenely above an open doorway. The 
consul, a Massachusetts man, extended to me a warm- 
welcome. He had been in the naval service, retir- 
ing wounded, and being connected with influential 
politicians, had secured this mission to Martinique. 
It is well known with what liberal hand our government 
rewards its wounded heroes, giving the more importu- 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 283 

nate, positions like this, where, with a salary of fifteen 
hundred dollars, each year calls upon the incumbent 
of the office for an expenditure of at least two 
thousand. The British consul had resided in Marti- 
nique fifteen years, and received a salary sufficient to 
maintain him in comfort. Within eighteen months 
the American consulate had had two representatives. 
As soon as one is prepared to execute his duties, he is 
kicked out and room made for another. 

Knowing that the consul was from Boston, I was 
not surprised to see in his office an " Old Farmer's 
Almanack ; " but I was greatly enlightened as to its 
uses when, one day, I saw him take it from its nail 
and gravely announce that, according to the tables for 
July, it was "time to take a drink." As the tables in 
that almanac are prepared for the latitude of Boston, 
I wondered at the genius that could adapt them to the 
latitude of Martinique ; but it is probably owing to the 
fact that much latitude is allowed, and that there a 
drink is in order at any time. 

Through the aid of the consul, I secured a room 
and board in a private family, whose delightful 
dejeuners and suppers will long be a pleasant remem- 
brance ; and may the good old mulattress who pre- 
pared them fulfil her mission for many years to come ! 
She could originate savory stews and ragouts from as 
nearly nothing as anv cook it has been my misfortune 
to meet ; her " ros-bif " was excellent ; and with a few 
potatoes and a little flour and fat she would produce 
" fomme de terre a la Martinique" — as she called 
it — that would make an exile from Erin howl with 
delight. With each plate a bottle of wine and a 
little twisted loaf of bread ; and after the dessert, of 



284 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

bananas, oranges, and sapadillos, or sour-sops, came 
a decanter of rum, a little cup of black coffee with 
sugar, and cigarettes. My vis-a-vis at these delight- 
ful repasts was the Commissaire of Police, an ex- 
officer of the navy of France, and a Chevalier of the 
Legion of Honor. It need not be added that he was 
courteous and agreeable. 

The Creoles of Martinique, as well as the inhabi- 
tants coming from France, have but few vices, the 
chief of which is that they will smoke the vilest, rank- 
est, most disgusting of cigars. These obnoxious 
fabrications are of American tobacco, twisted by the 
hand of the negress, or- mulattress, into a long cigar, 
called by the sailors "long-toms," and sold at a sou 
apiece. The better classes smoke cigarettes of im- 
ported French tobacco, and are as expert in rolling 
them when wanted as any Cuban ; but the negroes 
all, male and female, smoke the "long-toms." In 
enumerating the good qualities of my ancient cook, I 
overlooked the fact that from morn to night, while at- 
tending to. her domestic duties, anxiously bending over 
the pots and kettles, she never once relinquished the 
comforting- weed. 

Through the kindness of the photographer of St. 
Pierre, Monsieur Hartmann, an amiable and accom- 
plished gentleman, I was introduced into the ccrcle, 
or club, where French in its purity is spoken. The 
universal language, however, is that of the common 
people, the -patois, or provincial dialect; and even the 
cultivated speak, colloquially, the French tongue in 
this rude form. The prejudice against everything not 
exclusively French is exceedingly bitter, though the 
increasing amount of foreign imports is bringing 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 285 

articles from the United States into favor. Clothing 
is higher than in the English islands, and tailors few 
and inexpert. The business dress is the loose-fitting, 
blue or black, blouse, and white pants. The hot and 
stiff panama is preferred to all other hats, though its 
closeness of texture, affording no chance for ventila- 
tion, makes it the very worst possible for a tropical 
climate. Some of the more sensible, however, are 
adopting the cool and well-ventilated Indian pith hel- 
met, so much worn in the English islands. Panamas 
are the rage, and every street has its magasin, or 
store, with the conspicuous sign, " Chateaux de Pana- 
ma veritable ," some of which sell as high as fifteen 
or twenty dollars. Silks and cottons are extremely 
dear. The only thing cheap and tolerably good is 
the claret, which comes direct from France duty free ; 
and the vessel that brings the claret carries back as 
ballast the essential logwood. 

Nothing can be said against the costumes of the 
ladies, which are really elegant and in good taste. 
As in these islands there are no teachers of the terpsi- 
chorean art, so there are no dressmakers — or, if 
any, very few — and the ladies cut and make their 
own garments. In this they take especial pride, and 
their toilettes, as seen on a Sunday at ten-o'clock 
mass, do credit to their hands and heads. There is 
nothing that attracts a stranger's attention so quickly 
as the costumes of the hucksters, the dcmi monde, and 
the market-women : a single flowing robe of bright- 
colored calico, or white muslin, sometimes of silk, 
loose at the throat, and with a waistband high up 
under the shoulder-blades. It is that of the past 
century. These women are mulattresses, quadroons, 



286 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 




ili^ 



or octoroons ; among them are many pleasant faces 
with regular features, and some are even handsome. 
The colored Creole of French extraction is notably 
handsomer than those of Scotch or English, and more 
graceful and pleasing. The washerwomen and do- 
mestics sometimes wear their dress with one shoulder 

and arm exposed, and 
to such an extent was 
this carried but two 
years ago that a law 
was passed regulat- 
ing the extent of ex- 
posure. 

Passionately fond 
: of jewelry, these 
ladies of the street 
jrv » carry their ornamen- 
%4| tation to an exagger- 
i , „',, ' ; ated length. It is 
- not uncommon to 
',/'¥:-■'■. meet one of them 
with great coils of 
beads around the 
neck, with immense 
earrings, brooches at 
the throat, lockets and medallions suspended from 
massive chains, and the turban completely covered 
with pins and brooches, and the fingers with rings. 
The earrings of this class deserve especial mention, 
as they exceed in size anything worn elsewhere in 
the West Indies. The most gorgeous and most 
coveted are those composed of five gold cylinders, 
each as large as a lady's little finger, bound to- 




SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 



287 



gether, and suspended from the lobe of the ear by a 
large ring. All this jewelry is of pure gold, though 
thin and fragile, as not a woman among them but 
would scorn to be seen with an article of baser metal ; 
and not a dealer in the colony can sell a spurious 
piece. The wise French law that provides that every 
thing sold for genuine shall be of eighteen carat 
gold, and stamped with the eagle, is here enforced, 
even to the confiscation of the stock of a dishonest 
dealer. One of these females was pointed out to me 
as having more than five hundred dollars' worth of 
this character of jewels. Nothing exercises their taste 
and patience more than the shape and fit of their 
turbans or head-dresses. These are made from a 
single brifrht-colored 
or black handker- 
chief, dexterously 
twisted into shape ; 
and in this there are 
as many styles as the 
fancy of the wearer 
can invent. 

Contented and 
happy are these peo- 
ple, laughing and 
singing and smoking 
all the day long. 
Even the old woman 
who comes into mar- 
ket from the moun- 
tains, bearing upon 
her head the vegeta- 
bles and fruits of her 




288 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

garden, carries herself with an air that betokens in- 
dependence, and would sooner lose your patronage 
than dispense with her pipe. 

Through the Grande Rue, past the Gendarme?-te, 
up a narrow street to the rear of the theatre, I followed 
a little gamin, one cool morning, to seek birds in the 
yardtn des Plantes. A shower dropped suddenly now 
and then, but the summit of the volcano stood out cool 
and purple against a sky of untroubled blue. Gain- 
ing a level road at the base of high cliffs, I walked 
beneath almond and tamarind trees, looking down 
upon the savane, or level field, beneath, where are 
held the reviews and occasional shows that visit this 
island, and across to the lower town, where a white 
dome thrust itself up from a sea of cocoa palms. The 
huge cone swept from cloud to foaming river — the 
Riviere Roxelane, which divides the town, and from 
which, even thus early, came the sound of blows, 
telling the listening ear that inoffensive linen was 
being maltreated by vengeful females. A broad 
stretch of cane-field climbed well up the mountain, 
meeting the forest, which sent out detachments of 
trees to greet the cane, then spread out all over the 
peak, vast and dark. Houses looked out from gar- 
dens of fruit-trees ; everywhere was cultivation and 
growth. 

Descending slightly, I passed a little shrine to the 
Virgin, built right beneath the vine-hung precipice, 
which sent down a wealth of trailing, clinging plants 
to cover it. Leaning above it, as in benediction, is 
the famous and beautiful Arbre du Voyageur, which, 
if pierced, will give forth a stream of pure water. 
Its long leaves, fan-like in their arrangement, de- 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 289 




Jhe ^Wayside jShrine. 

scribe a semicircle above its stem. Inside the shrine 
is the sorrowful mother, carved of wood, and havino- 
her heart, pierced with arrows, on the outside of her 
robe, showing that sculptors, like poets, have a license 
to do not as other mortals. "Mater Dolorosa, 
Ora pro Nobis." Good Catholics are they who pass 
this shrine, for, one and all, they cross themselves 
devoutly. 

At the entrance to the garden is a keeper's lodge, 
of stone. A foaming stream rushes under a wooden 
bridge, across which is a smaller garden, in which 



29O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

are roses and choice plants, and a small museum con- 
taining a good collection of birds, pictures of native 
types, and insects and reptiles of the island, which 
figured in the Exposition of 1867. 

Near the main walk a grotto, in a bank covered 
with vines, overhung by a palm, spouts out a glisten- 
ing shower. This broad path runs by the side of a 
stream, under tamarinds and screw-pines, ascending 
between a double row of tall palmistes. This, my 
guide tells me, was the old dueling-ground of the 
Creoles, and the many holes with which the gray 
pillars are perforated were caused by bullets ; the 
names carved there, in memory of those who fell. 
This may well be credited when I can state upon my 
own evidence that there were three duels on the tapis 
when I left the island. Though many of the affairs 
of honor are merely farcical, and the empty air gets 
the pistol-shot and sword-thrust, there are some in 
which the participators are in dead earnest, and blood 
is often shed. 

Above the palms is a cascade sixty feet in height, 
which flows from a deep cut in solid rock, in a single 
sheet, into a broad basin below. From the cascade 
another path, broad and shaded, leads to a gar- 
den of acclimatization and a nursery, where are all 
kinds of tropical plants — groups of palmistes, tree- 
ferns, fan-palms, broken-leaved African palms, and 
forms of plants strange even to these tropic isles. 
Near the basin of a fountain, containing the Egyptian 
papyrus, are the tallest sago-palms ever seen out of 
their' native isles of the Indian Archipelago, for they 
are twenty feet in height, have stout trunks and dense 
crowns. Candelabra cacti, night-blooming cereus, 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 2C)I 

roses, honeysuckles, and a hundred other plants, may 
here be found. 

The gem of the garden is the lake in its center, 
surrounded by great trees ; tall palms pierce the 
leaves above it; a broken stream, tumbling down 
from the hill, half screening some fern-covered grotto 
as it falls, plunges into it. It is a small pond, but 
contains vegetable wonders on its three small islets 
that at home would be priceless. One island is com- 
pletely covered with a mound of vines wound about 
a screw-pine and frangipanni — a tangled mass of 
jessamine and wild vines of the tropics, spangled with 
wiiite, red, and yellow flowers. Another, a mere 
foothold for the tree, contains a "traveler's tree," its 
magnificent leaves reflected in the lake. The other 
islet contains more rare plants, wild plantains with 
golden cups, ferns and flowers, and is further graced 
by two very slender areca-palms, exquisitely grace- 
ful, shooting upward with stems not larger than one's 
wrist, and forty feet in height. Their delicate leaves 
droop above dense clusters of nuts — the famous nuts 
with which the betel is mixed and chewed by the 
natives of the East. 

The low bushes are covered with land-snails, and 
lizards dart out from every crevice, from under every 
rock and dead limb, and run up the trunks of trees 
by scores — lizards of all sorts, sizes, and colors; and 
they are sluggish, too, and it is easy to catch them. 
But in searching for snails, I encountered an insect 
not very agreeable, whose bite is certain fever, some- 
times death. Horribly gay is this spider, the Taran- 
tula, in the long hair that covers body and legs, which 
serves well to conceal it while waiting for its prey, 



292 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

in a dark crevice or under a drooping leaf. They 
like to conceal themselves beneath the leaves of such 
plants as the aloes, where one broad leaf underlaps 
the other, and where they can rest almost unseen. You 
see it also on the walks, its hairy legs outstretched, 
its ugly body flat to the earth, resembling a bunch of 
catkins from the trumpet-tree, which everywhere lie 
scattered about. Poke it with a stick, and, instead 
of trying to escape, it will climb up that stick so vig- 
orously toward your hand, that, ten to one, you will 
drop it and run. Turn it over, and it discloses a pair 
of sharp, beak-like jaws, red within, which, with its 
gleaming eyes, have a cruel appearance. With its 
legs spread, this spider will sometimes cover the area 
of a saucer. 

Centipedes and scorpions, also, abound here. In- 
deed, it seems that nature has bestowed upon this 
island of Martinique all the pests and scourges 
known to these islands ; for only here and in the 
adjacent island of St. Lucia is found that most ven- 
omous and vengeful of all serpents, the Lance-head 
snake — Craspcdoce^phalus lanceolatus. The isolation 
of this snake in these two islands, when its nearest 
habitat is Guiana, is one of the most vexing stumbling- 
blocks to one studying the distribution of animals. 
How came it here? Was it introduced, or is it in- 
digenous? Was it wafted here upon some floating 
tree, or was its home here from the beginning? The 
correct solution of this problem would, doubtless, throw 
some light upon that more important and gigantic one, 
Were 'these islands once a part of the continents? Cer- 
tain it is, the adjacent islands of Dominica and St. 
Vincent, separated from these by channels less than 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 293 

thirty miles in width, are free from this scourge. Nay, 
more; it is recorded that, during the wars between 
the English and Caribs, in the last century, the Lance- 
head was carried to the islands just named, but could 
not be made to live. 

Annually, during the crop season, many laborers 
are killed in each island, for this snake has its hiding- 
places in the canes as well as in the forests. It has 
been so abundant in this garden that the pleasant 
walks and shady drives are nearly always deserted. 
A serpent over seven feet in length, killed in the gar- 
den, is shown in the Museum. There is, it is said, 
no antidote for its bite ; though the ever-traditional 
old negro, living in some secluded spot, with herbs 
and antidotes, likewise exists here. He is never found 
when needed, however. The poison is quickly fatal, 
and decomposition rapidly follows. A gentleman, 
whose father was once a wealthy planter in St. Lucia, 
and had many slaves, told me that an antidote that 
generally proved efficacious if used immediately, was 
forty grains of quinine in the juice of two lemons ; in 
extreme cases he administered a glass of olive oil and 
rum, and used the vapor bath. The remedy used in 
the South, when bitten by the rattlesnake — whiskey, 
all that the patient can drink — seems useless here. 
The dread of this serpent is universal. It seems to 
possess a hatred for man ; and it is seriously avowed 
by the natives that it will lie in wait for an oppor- 
tunity to inflict death. The country people live in 
continual trepidation, and very few of them will ven- 
ture from their houses after dark, even in the suburbs 
of the city. 

Martinique is the largest of the Lesser Antilles, 



294 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

being about fifty miles in length, and containing, it 
is estimated; about three hundred and eighty square 
miles. The surface is very uneven, the interior being 
one grand region of hills and mountains. The high- 
est of these is Mount Pelue, over four thousand feet 
in height, north-west of the principal town, St. Pierre. 
Though a volcano which has emitted smoke and 
ashes within thirty years, there are now no signs of 
an eruption. Late in July I was hunting in these 
mountains, making my headquarters at Morne Rouge, 
a little village occupying a central plateau near the 
volcano. From there I made excursions to Morne 
Calebasse, Morne Balisier, Mount Pel£e, and Champ 
Flore. There are many mineral springs in the moun- 
tains, two of which — one reached from St. Pierre, 
and the other from Fort de France — are famous re- 
sorts for the inhabitants. 

Morne Rouge is a holy city ; to it every year the 
people of the coast, high and low, make pilgrim- 
ages on foot. The church here is beautifully deco- 
rated, the interior containing valuable paintings and 
frescoings. The Virgin is magnificently arrayed and 
enriched by the spoils of the faithful and credulous. 
All about are shrines and crosses and sacred mounts 
of Calvary ; and near the town is a most charm- 
ing grotto, containing an image of the Virgin, over- 
hung by tree-ferns, hollowed from a rock dripping 
with water, with a clear pool and fountain at its 
base. 

Sunday is a f§te day, and the busiest of the week. 
Then the young ladies from the convent and the 
brothers from the monastery attend church in a body. 
Every one is dressed in the best he can afford. A ven- 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 



295 



der of cakes pitches a 
small bench beneath 
the shade of a ve- 
randa and offers an 
assortment not pro- 
curable on week- 
days. She drives a 
o-ood trade in the 

o 

morning, as the peo- 
ple return from early 
mass ; but as the sun 
gets around in the 
afternoon she leaves 
bench and cakes to 
themselves, covers 
them with a ragged 
blanket that has seen 
unwashed service for 

years, and contentedly sucking a cigar, snoozes 
quietly in the shade. She has on a white chemise, 
a man's hat of straw, a black skirt, and a white hand- 
kerchief bound about her forehead. At three in the 
afternoon, all go to church. The universal dress is 
black coat and white pants. Here are a few costumes 
of the blacks : Black turban, black dress, cut with 
waist high up under the arms, and black shoes ; an- 
other in bright colors and green shoes ; again another, 
sans shoes ; one with a parasol; a diminutive darky 
stalking gravely along with a bush for parasol and 
feet thrust into vawninsj shoes. All wear high heels 
when dressed. Men and women pass and repass with 
huge bundles nicely balanced upon their heads. 

When it was known that I intended shooting over 




296 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the fields and through the forests about Morne Rouge, 
all my acquaintances of a day gathered about me, 
frantically expostulating, and I with difficulty secured 
a boy to pilot me. To satisfy these good people, to 
some extent, I drew on a pair of boots of alligator 
skin, old and grievously rent, which had accompanied 
me through flood and forest for full five years. Seven 
years had passed since these boots were sporting in 
saurian shape in the warm waters of the " Land of 
Flowers." The skin composing them I had wrenched 
from the lifeless bodies of two alligators measuring 
respectively nine and ten feet. They had shown 
gallant fight, and it was to perpetuate their achieve- 
ments, and to protect my feet, that I had caused their 
skins to be tanned and made into boots. Impervious 
were they once, and gallant service had they per- 
formed ; for they were fashioned and constructed by 
no less a cordwainer than Shadrach Fisk, a worthy 
knight of St. Crispin, Shadrach, and as honest a man 
as ever trod or manipulated shoe-leather. 

Much courage did these' boots infuse into my heart, 
and I strode forth valiantly, trusting that any well-dis- 
posed snake would be magnanimous enough to strike 
at the hide and not at the holes. Not Roderick Dhu, 
with targe of "tough bull-hide," felt better protected 
than I felt then. Let the short sequel show how vain 
are man's pretences. We marched out into the fields, 
my little pilot trembling with fear, and so craven that 
he dared not retrieve my birds. We came to an im- 
mense tree, a silk-cotton, which covered a broad area 
with its shadow. In this tree was a little shrine, rudely 
made, and a plaster figure of the immaculate mother; 
at her feet a candle burning, and humble offerings. It 



SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 297 

was the tribute of some poor laborer, this shrine. 
It has often been forced upon my notice, this rev- 
erence of the ignorant for a giant tree. Here they 
will bring their offerings, and prefer these leafy- 
temples to the more pretentious cathedrals. 

Steps were cut out from the great roots up to the 
shrine, and I walked up to examine it. A shriek from 
my attendant halted me, and I saw him upon his 
knees, imploring me not to venture farther. Thinking 
it was a foolish superstition regarding the approach of 
an armed man to a place of veneration, I was about 
assuring my bo_y that his fears were groundless, when 
a movement above me drew my attention. 

Coiled along a branch, with half the body hanging 
and the head drawn back awaiting my approach, was 
the dreaded serpent, venomous glances, that hardly 
lacked the power to slay, darting from its fiery eyes. 
Another step and I should have received the blow ; 
and that it would have been a fatal one I have little 
doubt. Shot after shot rang out until the loathsome 
reptile fell ; but even when he lay stretched upon the 
ground did I not dare to tread upon him, so completely 
had I lost faith in the protection of alligator boots. I 
recalled the facetious advice of our consul, given as 
I was preparing for my excursion to the mountains, 
that my only safety lay in encasing myself securely 
in iron armor. As a substitute for this, he advised 
me to procure a barrel, cut holes for my head 
and arms, and thrust my legs through sections of 
stove-pipe. 



298 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 

FORT DE FRANCE. — THE PARK. — TAMARINDS AND MANGOS. — 
STATUE OF JOSEPHINE. — THE TROIS PITONS. — HISTORIC HILLS. 
— CORONATION. — INSCRIPTION. — AN EARTHQUAKE. — TER- 
ROR. — PARENTS OF JOSEPHINE. — HER GRANDMOTHER. — 
ALEXANDER DE BEAUHARNAIS. — A VALUABLE DOCUMENT. — 
MARRIAGE REGISTER OF JOSEPHINE'S PARENTS. — BUNGLING 
BIOGRAPHERS. — MUSTY MEMOIRS. — FORT ROYAL BAY. — THE 
PASSAGE-BOAT "JOHN." — TROIS ILETS. — THE BOULANGER. — 
A FESTIVE FATHER. — A DINNER IN JEOPARDY. — A LOW 
COUCH. — A HIGH BILL. — CHURCH IN WHICH JOSEPHINE WAS 
BAPTIZED. — A TABLET TO HER MOTHER'S MEMORY. — LA 
PAGERIE, BIRTH-PLACE OF JOSEPHINE. — THE HURRICANE. — 
THE ROOF THAT SHELTERED AN EMPRESS. — GROUND HER 
FEET HAD PRESSED. — YOUTH OF JOSEPHINE. — ANOTHER 
SHOCK. — THE NEGRO BARRACKS. — THE EMPRESS' BATH. — 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO ! — THE SIBYL. — THE HUMMING- 
BIRD. — IN PERIL FROM A SERPENT. — A PEACEFUL SCENE. — 
A RUDE AWAKENING. — THE RIVER COMES DOWN. — EARTH- 
QUAKE AGAIN. — RAGS AND MELANCHOLY. 

A LITTLE steamer runs between St. Pierre and 
Fort de France, the seat of government of the 
island, coasting the shore, past a most interesting 
landscape twenty miles, the banks high and precipi- 
tous, exhibiting many different strata, and affording to 
a geologist a glimpse of the manner in which the 
island was formed. Huge rounded hills come down 
to the sea, where they are abruptly cut down, looking 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 299 

like the halves of Dutch cheeses, the slices smooth 
and straight. The summer rains had caused an ac- 
cumulation of water in the hills above, and I counted 
eight streams pouring over the precipices, all of 
which a few days later would have disappeared. 
Half-way down, the surface slopes farther back from 
the shore, though there is but little cultivation until 
the bay of Fort Royal is reached. A large stone 
fortress, a large usinc, or sugar refinery, an open 
park, a few government buildings, and a river, are all 
that particularly claim attention. 

Fort de France was originally known as Fort 
Royal, but this was before the days of republican 
rule. It is situated between two rivers, the Riviere 
Madame and the Riviere Monsieur ; the former, on 
the north, is very beautiful during its short length, 
especially near its embouchure ; palms reflect them- 
selves in the still water, and a church, on the bank, 
sees its image on the glassy surface. The hills, such 
as hem in St. Pierre, here recede a greater distance 
from the shore, and the town occupies a low and level 
plain, with wide streets crossing at right angles, lined 
with well-built wooden houses. There are few trees 
save in the park, which lies near the shore between 
fortress and town. Here there are long and thickly- 
planted rows of tamarinds and mangos overshading 
the broad level walks. Enclosed by this double row 
of trees is a large savane, or common, covered with a 
luxuriant carpet of grass, in the center of which stands 
the statue of her of whom I came to learn. 

Majestic in poise, graceful in outline, carved of 
marble spotless as her own pure soul, Josephine 
stands calmly aloft, surrounded by a circle of mag- 



300 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

nificent palms ; the oreodoxas, glories of the moun- 
tains, add their glorious crowns to that which adorns 
the head of the empress. For hours I have gazed 
upon that beautiful creation, as, seated beneath the 
spreading tamarinds, I have striven to impress upon 
my memory an ineffaceable image of its loveliness. 
There is one view that is inexpressibly beautiful, with 
the snow-white statue sharply outlined against a dis- 
tant group of mountain-peaks, the Trois Pitons, which 
are sometimes deep blue, again light green, or par- 
tially obscured by drifting clouds. Against this back- 
ground Josephine stands out white as an angel. An- 
other view, at a little distance, gives a background of 
tamarinds ; another that of the purple-green mango. 
From any position it appears a perfect composition ; 
an inimitable grace pervades the sweep of the royal 
robes, and the whole suggests a master's hand. 

The statue fronts the sea, but the face is turned a 
few points south, so that it looks toward a line of hills, 
five miles away, nestled among which is the valley in 
which Josephine was born. The sentiment conveyed 
in the look of wistful yearning in that sweet face, 
turned longingly to the scenes of her childhood, is as 
beautiful as truthful. In front is the Caribbean Sea ; 
the great fort hides the hills from the view of one 
standing by the statue, but a few steps to the eastward 
brings them in sight. 

Upon a medallion of Napoleon, Josephine rests her 
left hand. On the pedestal, a bas-relief in bronze 
represents the famous coronation scene, recalling that 
extraordinary pageant, when Bonaparte surpassed all 
preceding coronations in the magnificence of this, 
summoning the venerable Pius VII. from the Vatican 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 3OI 

to assist in his assumption of royalty : In the center, 
the Pope ; Napoleon, in the act of placing the crown 
upon the head of Josephine, who kneels before him. 
The inscriptions upon the dies are as follows : 

North: " Han "1868. Napoleon III Regnant, 
Lcs Habitants de la Martinique ont eleve ce monu- 
ment a Lilmperatrice "Josephine. Nee dans cette 
Colonie" 

East: "Nee Le XXI TI Juin, MDCCLXIII" 
(Crown, shield, and eagle of France.) 

South : The bas-relief, — Coronation scene. 

West: "MariS Le IX Mars, MDCCXCVI? 
(Draped shield, eagle, and crown.) 

The statue is enclosed by a neat iron fence, and 
is further surrounded by a ring of palms, planted, I 
believe, at the time it was erected. In the distance, 
on a hill, is an old fort and a little chapel, where the 
Virgin Mother extends her hands in benediction, and 
where a candle burns, bright by night and dim by 
day. 

As amateur photographer I sought a resident artist, 
Monsieur Fabre, who received and aided me cheer- 
fully, especially when he learned that I bore a letter 
from our good friend Hartmann, of St. Pierre. In his 
capacious court-yard I was soon busily at work pre- 
paring my chemicals, wrapped in a vapor of collodion. 
I was suddenly awakened by a strange shock, as 
though some one had shaken me strongly and was 
about standing me upon my head. At that instant, 
in rushed my friend, the photographer, with loud 
cries: n Ah, nwn Dieul Tr emblement de tcrre ! 
Tr emblement de terre!" "Earthquake! Earthquake!" 



302 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



The ground shook, walls cracked, and, in common 
with every one else, I rushed into the street. There 
was the entire populace crowded together in terror, 
most of them wildly shrieking and gesticulating. The 
shocks lasted but a few minutes, and then all went 
calmly back to their houses. After this the sky was 
as serene and blue, and the trees as quiet, as before, 








Birthplace of Josephine. 



and I finished my photographs of beautiful Josephine, 
who had been an unmoved spectator of it all, without 
interruption. 

The town of Fort de France is intimately connected 
with scenes in the early life of Josephine, and of her 
parents. In 1755, Joseph Gaspard de La Pagerie, 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 303 

father of Josephine, returned to Martinique from 
France, whither he had been sent to school. That 
year war was declared between England and France, 
and the young officer, first lieutenant, of artillery, was 
actively engaged in erecting batteries at Fort de 
France, then, as now, the naval port of the island. 
He aided in the repulse of the English under General 
Moore in 1759. anc ' t0(J k such active part in the second 
defence, in 1762, when the town was captured, that 
he was complimented by the general commanding the 
English forces and allowed to retire to his estate at 
Trois-Ilets. 

In June, 1760, there was baptized in the church of 
Saint Louis, at Fort Royal, an infant, born the pre- 
ceding May, and named Alexandre de Beau- 
harnais, who was destined to be the husband of 
Josephine. An aunt of Josephine was godmother to 
this child. The Marquis de Beauharnais, father to 
Alexander, had been appointed governor of Marti- 
nique and the French colonies three years previously, 
with authority over all the respective governors of the 
other islands. Leaving Martinique for France in the 
following year, the Marquis left his infant son in 
charge of Madame de La Pagerie, grandmother to 
Josephine. This lady resided principally in Fort de 
France, and when Josephine attended school at the 
near convent, she was a frequent visitor at the house 
of her grandmother, if indeed she did not reside 
with her. 

But the most interesting event in the history of the 
island was the marriage of the parents of Josephine, 
the register of which T found among the musty 
archives of the island, in Fort de France. The docu- 



304 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

ment is long, and though I have a fac-simile copy of 
that page in the ancient register containing it, I will 
give but the substance here. It states that " Messire 
Joseph Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de 
La Pagerie, native of the parish of St. Jacque dn 
Carbet, — of said island of Martinique, lieutenant in 
the artillery, son in legitimate marriage of Messire 
Joseph- Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de 
La Pagerie, and of Madame Marie-Frangoise Bou- 
reau de La Chevalerie, living in the town of Port 
Royal," was married to " demoiselle Rose-Claire des 
Vergers de Sannois, native of the parish of Trois-Ilets, 
daughter in legitimate marriage of Messire Joseph 
des Vergers de Sannois and of dame Marie-Catherine 
Brown, natives of and dwellers in the parish of 
Trois-Ilets," etc. 

Thus we have in this register of marriage, dated 
November the ninth, 1761, the names and rank of 
the parents and grandparents of Josephine, and, what 
is of equal importance, their place of residence at that 
time, only eighteen months previous to her birth. 

Let us turn for a moment to her biographers. One 
or two will suffice to show how inaccurate are their 
statements. Thus, in " Memoirs of the Empress Jose- 
phine," by John S. Memes, LL.D., I find that the 
parents of the Empress were — "both natives of 
France, though married in St. Domingo, about 
1761." . . . "Of this parentage, the only child, 
the subject of these Memoirs, was born in St. Pierre, 
the capital of Martinico, on the 23d of June, 1763." 

A French dictionary of biography also repeats that 
Josephine was born in St. Pierre ; but this is refuted 
by the register of baptism at Trois-Ilets, which the 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 305 

author of the " Histoire de V Im-piratrice yosephine," 
M. Aubenas, (to whose volume I am indebted for the 
facts relating to the early life of Josephine,) quotes 
entire. 

A deep bay nearly divides the island of Martinique 
near the southern end. On its northern side, Fort 
de France ; at its bight, La Montagne and Riviere 
Salce ; and directly south of Fort de France is the 
little town (petit bourg, it is called) of Trois-Ilets — 
the Three Islets — hidden from sight by a high cape. 
1 was going to hire a boat and three men to carry 
me across the bay ; but just as we were ready to go, 
early one morning, the rain came down in sheets, 
and we were obliged to wait. I then learned that 
a boat plied regularly between the town and the 
-petit bourg, and that it was but a mile and a half to 
"Inhabitation de La Pagcric." Its usual hour of 
starting was at four, but the rain delayed it until five 
in the afternoon. John, my self-appointed domestic, — 
a negro with an ugly face and one white eye, — had 
safely stowed my apparatus, hunting gear, and him- 
self, and I found with difficulty, between a couple of 
negresses, a place for myself. There were twenty- 
five of us, and I, as the only white man, duly felt my 
insignificance. 

Amid a great deal of jabbering, we pushed off. 
The boat was a long, open, flat-bottomed one, with a 
large mast, to be shipped in the bow, with a leg-of- 
mutton sail, and a smaller one perched right in the 
peak. A small negro boy had charge of the latter. 
They pulled out a bit, then shipped the mast. The 
wind came in puffs, at times very strong, and the 
captain at the helm was repeatedly shouting: "Gar- 



306 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

dez ! Fort vent 1 Coup de vent ! " — " Look out ! 
Strong wind ! A squall." And when the wind 
struck the boat, instead of luffing, they had three 
negroes swinging at the ends of three ropes attached 
a little more than half-way up the mast, who, with 
feet braced against the rail, would sway their bodies 
out over the water, and thus restore the equilibrium 
when she heeled. It was a novel and interesting 
sight, but one calculated to excite reflection, when 
wind should prove stronger than African, with the 
sheets made fast, a stubborn helmsman hanging to the 
tiller for dear life, and the water pouring in over 
the lee rail. 

We rounded the point and opened up the view 
of Trois-Ilets just after dark. A low church, with 
straggling tile-covered houses about it, backed by 
purple hills, with a cane field stretching to the east, in 
its center the presbytery surrounded by trees. The 
stars were gleaming in the sky as we landed and 
walked up to the house of the owner of the boat, a 
boulanger, who also kept a shop. There was no 
other place likely to afford me shelter, so I went to the 
baker's shop ; but the first square look I had at the 
owner convinced me that he was not a man prone to 
hospitable acts. Subsequent events, I am happy to 
say, proved conclusively that I was right. He said he 
could give me a dinner, but no bed, so I went out with 
a cobbler who could speak a little English, in search 
of the cure\ the parish priest, to whom I had a letter. 

We arrived at the presbytery at about half past 
seven, knocked, and after some delay were bidden 
to enter by the housekeeper, a comely woman. The 
cure entered the room ; short, corpulent, with sensual 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 307 

face, black hair and evidences of an abundant beard 
in reserve. As he came in he cast an anxious glance 
at the neatly-spread table, where one plate, one bottle 
of wine, and bread and napkin for one, plainly indi- 
cated that the cure did not expect visitors, — and then 
at the sideboard, where was a dish heaped with fruit, 
and another bottle of wine ; and then a smile spread 
over his countenance, and he advanced to meet me. 
After a few compliments — for I saw the worthy cure 
was unhappy about something — I handed him the 
letter, which stated substantially that I wished per- 
mission to photograph the church, and desired a 
glimpse of the ancient registers, and recommended 
me to his good offices. As he read, there appeared 
upon his face a multitudinous smile. He assured me 
that most certainly I could photograph the church, 
that it would give him actual pain if I did not, etc. ; 
then ensued a painful pause. My friend had told 
him that I could find no place in which to sleep, 
which he had not apparently heard, or, rather, con- 
cluded that it mattered not to a naturalist, who could 
probably sleep anywhere, like a bat, hanging up by 
his toes. 

Meanwhile, a savory odor came in from the kitchen. 
It was pretty evident that soup was ready and being 
kept in waiting over the coals ; that the mutton even 
was ready to be served, and the fish swimming in its 
sauce. The cure's nostrils dilated, while a look of 
sadness stole over his face. My friend then suggested 
that I had ordered dinner at the baker's ; after discuss- 
ing which, my only thought was for a couch, a rug, 
a floor — anything, so I had shelter from the even- 
ing damp. The cure's face brightened, then clouded 



308 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

again, and he hastened to say that he was really dis- 
tressed, but he had no room to spare. " He has three 
chambers," said my friend, in English. This was 
enough. I hastened away, leaving the cure with one 
eye on me and one on the table, uttering the most 
dismal of lamentations that he could not be of ser- 
vice to me. Well, thought I, here is a brace of 
generous men to welcome a stranger to the home of 
Josephine. 

The clock in the church struck eight as we reached 
the baker's. There I found that John had arranged 
to sleep on the floor, where I was obliged, after a 
greasy dinner, to sleep likewise. Awaking in the 
night, thirsty, I was agreeably surprised to find some 
rum and water with sugar. I found them also, next 
morning, in the bill, which, unlike my bed, was not 
low. At daylight I hastened on, anxious to escape 
from such a place. 

Later in the week I visited the little church hard 
by, and took the first picture ever made of the church 
in which the infant Josephine was baptized. Pre- 
suming that the exterior has been slightly altered 
since Josephine's time, the present spire constructed 
and the clock inserted, it is the same structure that 
existed a century ago. On either side the doorway 
is a ^flambeau-tree," which at the time of my visit 
were scarlet with blossoms. Two bells, rung for 
Sabbath mass, are beneath a rough shed near by, the 
prevalent earthquakes forbidding they should be raised 
to the steeple. Above the clock is the image of the 
patron saint. Back of the church, stretching down to 
the seaside, is the cemetery. The interior is attrac- 
tive, the altar, as in all Catholic churches, being par- 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 309 

ticularly ornamented. The two most interesting ob- 
jects to a visitor are, first, a picture on the right of 
the chancel, given by Napoleon, and on the left a 
tombcau, or tablet, to the memory of the mother of 
Josephine. 

And here let me venture a remark upon the falli- 
bility of certain biographers. In Merae's "Memoirs 
of the Empress Josephine," I find the following : 

"The infancy and youth of Josephine were passed, 
not under the paternal roof, but with an aunt. In- 
stead, therefore, of returning to St. Domingo with 
her parents, the infant remained in the island of Mar- 
tinico. We can discover no cause for this save a 
family arrangement in the first instance, and the pre- 
mature death of her mother. Without being aware 
of this circumstance, however, and perhaps not recol- 
lecting that her father died before she had become 
known, the reader might deem it remarkable, and 
even ungrateful, that Josephine so seldom mentioned, 
and consequently has left such slight and imperfect 
memorials of, her parents." 

Headley* is careful not to commit himself upon 
this point, and truly says : " The data are imperfect 
from which to gather a complete biography of their 
gifted daughter." But J. S. C. Abbott, in his history 
of Josephine, launches forth the following remarkable 
statement, evidently culled from Meme's Memoirs : 

"But little is known respecting Mile, de Sannois, 
this young lady who was so soon married to M. Ta- 
scher. Josephine was the only child born of this 

* Headley : s " Life of the Empress Josephine " is the most com- 
plete, and comprises all data at that time published regarding her. 
It is an interesting: and valuable book. 



310 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

union. In consequence of the early death of her 
mother, she was, while an infant, intrusted to the 
care of her aunt. Her father soon after died, and 
the little orphan appears never to have known a 
father's or a mother's love." And this careless state- 
ment of a stay-at-home biographer has gone forth 
to the world. 

Here is a literal translation of the inscription upon 
that tablet in the church at Trois-Ilets, in which the 
parents of Josephine were married, she was baptized, 
and in which her mother lies buried : 

HERE LIES 

THE VENERABLE 
MADAME ROSE CLAIRE DUVERGER DE SANNOIS, 

WIDOW OF MESSIRE J. G. TASCHZR DE LA PAGERIE, 
MOTHER OF HER MAJESTY THE EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH, 

DIED THE SECOND DAY OF JUNE, MDCCCVII, 
AT THE AGE OF LXXI YEARS. 

PROVIDED WITH THE SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 

It will thus be seen that the mother of Josephine 
died in 1807, when her daughter wzl's, forty-four years 
of age, having lived to see her married to Beauhar- 
nais at the age of sixteen ; to welcome her back to 
her home when separated from her husband ; to hear 
of the latter's death, in 1794, °f ner marriage to Napo- 
leon, in 1796, and of her coronation as Empress of the 
French, in 1804. Fortunately, she passed away before 
the cruel act of divorce, and while Josephine was the 
happy wife of Napoleon, but did not leave her daugh- 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 3II 

ter at what is generally considered a tender age. And 
again, Josephine is spoken of as being an only daugh- 
ter, when the records of the parish show the registers 
of the baptism of three and of the death of two. 

From the bourg to La Pagerie the scenery is un- 
interesting, being only of cane-fields. About a mile 
out we reached a narrow valley running up from the 
sea for about three miles. In this valle}' once stood 
the house in which Josephine was born, in 1763. Jut- 
ting hills hide the site until you are close upon it, 
when a turn in the road discloses a secluded vale, 
and a few rods farther brings you to a low wooden 
house with roof of tiles, old and dilapidated, with a 
little " shingle " over the doorway, having upon it 
the common shop-sign of the country, "Debit de la 
Fcrmc" which means that you can buy there rum 
and salt fish in limited quantities. 

I will confess to feelings of disappointment and dis- 
gust ; and it was with a sinking heart that I drew 
my water-logged and mud-clogged feet toward the 
doorway. But I was at once reassured by a sight of 
the face of an honest man, a crood-lookino-, intelligent 
one, with blue eyes, and a pleasant mouth shaded by 
a heavy gray moustache. He readily gave me per- 
mission, and assisted me so ably that in a short time 
I had secured four photographs of the two build- 
ings coexistent with Josephine, and had explored the 
rooms where she resided in youth. I was made happy 
by learning that the house he occupied was not one 
of the original buildings, but had been constructed 
of materials from the house in which Josephine was 
born, which had been destroyed by a hurricane shortly 
after her birth. 



312 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

We traced the walls of the ancient building, which 
gave evidence of one of ample dimensions — the walls 
once supporting the gallery and those enclosing the 
court. The only buildings now standing which were 
in existence at the time of Josephine's birth are two — 
the ancienne cuisine, the kitchen once attached to the 
dwelling, and the sucrerie, or sugar-house. Lowly 
and humble, with walls of stone and roof of earthen 
tiles, whose mellow tone and gray lichens suggested 
great age, was the old building which once had 
been the home for many years of the mother of Jose- 
phine. For tradition, as authentic as tradition can be, 
states that here lived Madame Tascher de la Pagerie 
after the death of her husband, and while her daugh- 
ter was the wife of Napoleon. Those two small win- 
dows in the roof look into two chambers, now dilapi- 
dated and unused, chosen as the widow's abode when 
left solitary and alone. Not many years ago there 
died in Trois-Ilets a very old woman, once a domes- 
tic in the family, who attended Madame La Pagerie 
in her later years, and it is through her this tradi- 
tion was preserved. Above the humble roof droops 
a stately mango, rich in golden fruit and dark-green 
leaves. 

Lieutenant La Pagerie resided with his bride, in 
1761, on the estate of his father-in-law, a portion of 
which was given him at the time of his marriage. A 
few years later he came into possession of it, and it is 
known at the present time as La Pagerie. The es- 
tate was a large one, employing one hundred and 
fifty slaves in the cultivation of cane and coffee, and 
yielding a large annual revenue. 

Here, on the 23d of June, 1763, Josephine was 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 313 




The Home of an Empress. 

born. She had scarcely reached the age of three 
years when the island was visited by a terrible hurri- 
cane that destroyed an immense amount of property 
and many lives. The hurricane was accompanied by 
shocks of earthquake, thunder and lightning. None 
so serious had occurred in the memory of man. The 
mansion of La Pagerie was utterly ruined and the 
crops swept away. The walls of the sugar-house 
alone were left standing, and to this building M. La 
Pagerie fled for shelter with his wife and two children. 
Shortly after they had taken up their residence in the 
sugar-house, a third child, a daughter also, was born 
to Mme. La Pagerie. This child, with the other sis- 
ter of Josephine, died young ; and a mistake on the 
records of the burial of the youngest caused the erro- 
neous statement subsequently that Josephine had an 
elder sister. 

Down the hill, within a stone's-throw of the dwell- 
ing, is the sugar-house to which M. La Pagerie re- 
moved after the visit of the hurricane. It is of stone, 



314 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

its walls are very thick, at least two feet, and it is 
covered with the durable brown tiles so in harmony 
with the landscape. In the eastern half are, or were, 
two large chambers extending two-thirds the length 
of the building, which is above one hundred feet long 
and fifty wide. The roof is fallen in at one place, 
and you can look into the interior of one of the cham- 
bers in which Josephine and her parents lived during 
her youth. 

Ah, if those massive walls could speak ! Through 
these low windows how many times has the youthful 
empress looked out upon a landscape that once pos- 
sessed all the beauties of the tropics ! Through the 
wide doorway on the southern side how many times 
has she descended to indulge in the gambols which 
she loved so well ! 

I climbed to the great rafters, from which the floor- 
ing had been many years removed, and looked through 
those windows, and stood in the same doorway in which 
the happy Josephine had so often stood — a doorway 
bordered by blocks of granite, connecting the two cham- 
bers. But there was nothing there to recall her who 
had once illumined these walls by her presence, and 
who had now been absent a hundred years. Above, 
the roof was black with bats clustered in noisy groups, 
hanging from the tiles ; beneath, the rafters ; and be- 
low, the ground. The sun sank low behind the hills 
that ringed this lovely valley round, and fell with fee- 
ble glare through the rent in the roof that once had 
sheltered an empress. Nothing could be evoked from 
empty space ; I could merely say that T had seen the 
home which once was hers, and had trodden ground 
her feet had pressed. 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 315 

Of the first years of this illustrious child we know 
little. She resided here with her parents until ten 
years of age, when she was sent to the convent at 
Fort Royal, where she remained until fifteen. During 
the brief period which elapsed between her return 
from the convent and her marriage to Beauharnais, 
she dwelt with her family, engaged in domestic duties 
and in the education of her sisters. At the age of 
sixteen she was married to Alexander de Beauhar- 
nais, in France. In 1788, having separated from her 
husband, she returned to her birthplace, and passed 
three tranquil years. With her little daughter, the 
charming Hortense, then five years old, she rambled 
over the hills and valleys endeared to her by the 
memory of her childhood days. 

With a loving mother and father, and in the com- 
pany of her youngest sister, surrounded by sympa- 
thetic neighbors, she seems to have passed some of 
the happiest days of her existence. Thus she writes 
of her retreat, during the separation from Beauhar- 
nais : 

"Nature, rich and sumptuous, has covered our fields 
with a carpeting which charms as well by the variety 
of its colors as of its objects. She has strewn the 
banks of our rivers with flowers, and planted the fresh- 
est forests around our fertile borders. I cannot resist 
the temptation to breathe the pure aromatic odors 
wafted on the zephyr's wings. I love to hide myself 
in the green woods that skirt our dwelling ; there I 
tread on flowers which exhale a perfume as rich as 
that of the orange grove, and more grateful to the 
senses. How many charms has this retreat for one 
in mv situation ! . . . I find mvself in the midst of 



316 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

my relations and the old friends who once loved and 
still love me tenderly." 

On the day succeeding that on which I took my 
photographs, some of the tiles above the dormer win- 
dows were shaken down by an earthquake. Around 
the house are cocoa and mango trees, sapadillos and 
avocado pears ; but none are left of the majestic palms 
that are said to have surrounded the dwelling. The 
quiet beauty of the place, the gentle manners of Mon- 
sieur Mareschal, the proprietor, and the historic asso- 
ciations of the valley, all combined to form an attraction 
not to be resisted, and I begged permission to stay 
a while. My new friend readily acceded, but hesi- 
tated to offer me the only accommodations the estate 
afforded, a room in the negro barracks ; but I assured 
him that I had camped in worse places, and before 
nine o'clock that night I was established. My room 
was very small, but in it Madame Mareschal had 
placed an iron camp-bedstead and a chair, and to it 
my faithful John had removed my effects. It was in 
the center of a long, low structure, built against the 
garden wall, once used as quarters for the servants 
when the estate was in nourishing circumstances. 
Right and left of me were negro families ; but 
of their dirt and noise, and kind attentions, I will 
not speak. For ten days I stayed there, having a 
seat at my friend's table, and sleeping at night in the 
barracks. 

Over the hills which surrounded the valley on every 
side I rambled, with a little negro as guide, and ex- 
plored many a nook, that, if it could speak, would tell 
delightful stories of the historic past. Of the many 
pleasant days passed there, let me give a description 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 317 

of one, the last. It was morning, the sun had not 
appeared above the hills, as, guided by a little negro, 
I took the footpath up the valley, south, reaching the 
narrow lane between the hills on the west and the 
river. Cool and grateful was the shady vale. Jessa- 
mine and frangipanni and acacia, bent low beneath the 
weight of last night's showers and sweetened the air: 
birds, few in species but many in number, burst into 
song as we passed. A little wren, that had its habita- 
tion beneath the eaves of the sugar-house — doubtless 
a descendant of those who sang carols to Josephine — 
delighted me with a trill of melody. We passed 
beneath a tall silk-cotton tree, hung with silken flowers, 
about which were buzzing bees and glancing hum- 
ming-birds ; across the stream on rude stepping-stones ; 
a little farther, past groups of mangos, and across a 
rude bridge, till we reached a cliff', its face hidden be- 
hind a veil of vines. Then beneath a wide-spreading 
mango we halted, and I climbed a great rock and pre- 
pared for my morning bath. 

There were places in the river better than this, 
deeper and wider ; but there was an association here, 
clinging to water-rounded bowlders, to gray cliff and 
gravelly basin, that rendered this little nook doubly 
charming. It was the favorite resort of Josephine, 
where daily, at early morning, she came to bathe. 
This tradition has been handed down from parent to 
child among the negroes, whose ancestors were slaves 
here, on this very estate, and is better based than the 
tales of distant biographers. ' ' Le bain de Vlmpera- 
tr/ce" it is called to this da v. Though time and flood 
and earthquake have changed it much since then, and 
its original proportions somewhat lessened, it still 



3l8 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

remains, with solid towering rocks on one side, and 
bowlders above and below, as in the days of her who 
once blessed it with her presence. 

It must have been somewhere on this very path, if 
not within a gunshot of this same bathing-pool, that 
Josephine met the Sibyl who prophesied so truly her 
future fate : " You will be married soon ; that union 
will not be happy ; you will become a widow, and 
then — then you will be Queen of France ! " 

It is not difficult to imagine her here again, sporting, 
dancing, along the bank of this rocky stream. From 
her own pen we have a glimpse of her at that period, 
one hundred years ago : "I ran, I jumped, I danced, 
from morning to night. Why restrain the wild move- 
ments of my childhood? " 

And this maiden, who graced in later life the salons 
of an emperor, who lives in the memory of the peo- 
ple as a creation of our own generation, this "lovely 
Creole," passed the happiest da}'s of her existence 
here ; roamed over these very hills, danced along these 
self-same valleys ; gazed perhaps upon this same silk- 
cotton that rears its towering crown above me now ! 

One hundred years ago ! 

Leaving the river, we climbed the hills to the west 
and began our search for birds. Above a tangled 
mass of thorny acacia hovered a tiny humming-bird, 
with slender beak and pointed helmet, darting at the 
spicy blossoms of an unknown vine ; gold and silver 
was he in the sunshine. The little gem dropped into 
the .thicket, wdth quivering wings that never again 
would bear their owner upward. Quickly my little 
companion darted forward to tear the vines apart to 
get at the bird which lay upon the ground beneath. 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 319 

He had hardly forced his hand through, when he 
uttered a shriek of terror and fell back, then ran 
quickly to me and clung to my legs, trembling and 
weeping. Pointing to the bushes, he faintly mur- 
mured, " Fcr dc Lance.'''' 

Cautiously approaching, I saw a wicked-looking 
head, belonging to a snake as large around as my arm. 
It was broad, triangular in shape, and flat, with gleam- 
ing eyes, and thrust itself toward us savagely, murder 
in its every look and motion. My gun was charged 
for another humming-bird, and the load of small shot 
I fired into the snake did not cause its death, and it 
unwound itself and crawled rapidly toward us, its 
eyes Hashing fire, intent upon striking us with its 
fangs, one blow of which would cause certain death. 
AVh en he got within reach of a stout cudgel my boy 
handed me, I mauled him so severely that he gave up 
the ghost after a short but severe fight ; for the 
"Fer de Lance" is no coward, and, like the rattle- 
snake, will right even fire. 

I soon had the satisfaction of seeing him hanging 
limp and lifeless from my stick, drops of deadly 
poison dripping from his jaws. Between shot and 
cudgel he got badly mangled, and made a sorry 
specimen for preservation ; I substituted for him a 
smaller one, killed later in the day, to send to Wash- 
ington. Nothing could induce my boy to retrieve 
the bird, and, relying upon his sagacity, I did not 
myself make the attempt. 

Finally, about eleven o'clock, we reached the sum- 
mit of the hill overlooking the valley toward the bay. 
I sat down upon a grassy knoll, beneath the shade of a 
small tulip-tree, and feasted my eyes upon the pros- 



320 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

pect. The sea was like glass, upon the bay rested 
the three little islets which give the bourg of Trois- 
Ilets its name. Beyond the bay, five miles away, lay 
Fort de France, and yet farther were the extinct vol- 
canoes of the Trois Pitons, and away east, just a 
hint of the Atlantic. Below me rolled hill and valley, 
enclosing in their embrace La Pagerie, birthplace of 
Josephine. 

Never was scene more peaceful, nor solitude more 
sweet. Little wonder that Josephine should recur to 
it in memory again, and again, when surrounded by 
the pomp and magnificence of courts. An hour 
passed, I lay in silent musing, gazing on the waving 
fields and shimmering sea : 

" 'Tis the fervid tropic noontime ; faint and low the sea-waves beat ; 
Hazy rise the inland mountains through the glimmer of the heat." 

From this day-dream I was rudely awakened by a 
tremor of the earth beneath me ; it seemed to tremble, 
to vibrate ; and then ensued that feeling of uncertainty 
that one experiences when, at the crest of a mighty 
wave, he is about to descend into abysmal depths, 
with his heart in his mouth. 

Sadly I retraced my steps, not so much in love, 
I fear, with this beautiful spot, as an hour before the 
shock. 

That afternoon, the river came down from the 
mountains a roaring torrent, washing away a bridge 
and a great deal of cane along its banks ; and my 
host lamented the loss of several hundred francs the 
flood had cost him. That night, another earthquake 
occurred, which awoke me all too rudely and caused 
me to reflect upon the strength of the thin strips of 



HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 321 

bamboo, above my head, that had supported the heavy 
tiles for a hundred years. 

My little g-arcon went with me to the boat at earlv 
morn, and wept bitterlv because I would not take him 
with me ; and I left him, regardless of my douceur of 
silver, a picture of rags and melancholy. 

21 



322 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 

POINT A PITRE. — THE RIVIERE SALEE. — USINES. — EARTH- 
QUAKE, FIRE AND HURRICANE. — A LIVING BULWARK. — THE 
CARAVELS OF COLUMBUS. — OUR LADY OF GUADELOUPE. — 
THE CARIBS. — BASSE TERRE. — LE PERE LABAT. — ORPHANS. 

— THE CHOLERA PLAGUE. — A PERMIS DE CHASSE. — MIXED. 

— A HORSE WITH POINTS. — GOVERNMENT SQUARE. — THE CON- 
VENT. — A SUMMER RETREAT. — MATOUBA. — MY THATCHED 
HUT. — DOCTOR COLARDEAU. ■ — THE COOLIE. — THE COFFEE 
PLANTATION. — FIRST COFFEE IN THE WEST INDIES. — ITS CUL- 
TIVATION. — TEMPERATURE OF THE COFFEE REGION. — BLOS- 
SOMS AND FRUIT. — PICKING AND PREPARING. — THE HIGH 
WOODS. — THEIR GRANDEUR. — GIANT TREES. — HUGE BUT- 
TRESSES. — LIANAS, ROPES AND CABLES. — EPIPHYTES AND 
PARASITES. — AERIAL GARDENS. — THE SULPHUR STREAM. — 
THE CONE. — THE SUMMIT. — THE PORTAL. — BLASTS OF HOT 
AIR. — NATURE'S ARCANA. — SULPHUR CRYSTALS. — ERUP- 
TIONS. — A GRAND VIEW. — IMPENETRABLE FORESTS. — AN 
EXTINCT BIRD. — JUAN PONCE DE LEON. — THE FOUNTAIN OF 
YOUTH. — THE DESCENT INTO GLOOM. 

IT was in the height of the " hurricane season," in 
August, that I left Isle of Martinique, the birth- 
place of Josephine, for Guadeloupe. At four o'clock, 
one calm morning, we steamed into the harbor of Point 
a Pitre, Guadeloupe's metropolis, and fired a gun. It 
was very dark ; only the light-house lamp sent its 
gleam abroad ; but in an hour the water about us was 
alive with boats. 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 323 

Guadeloupe is separated into two islands, one of 
volcanic origin, uneven and mountainous, the other 
low and flat, without even a hill. A narrow creek 
divides them — a shallow, salt passage, called the 
Riviere Salee. The banks of this creek are lined 
with mangroves ; and it is one of the hottest places in 
the West Indies, as my shooting excursions verified. 
Point a Pitre is situated at the southern mouth of this 




salt river. It is regularly built, with broad, straight 
streets, with a fountain in the center of a square, a 
fine cathedral, and many good houses. Here is, also, 
one of the largest tisines, or factories for making sugar, 
in the world, second only to the largest known — that 
of the khedive of Egvpt. 

What strikes the visitor with surprise is the new 



324 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

appearance of all the buildings, and the scarcity of 
trees. The explanation of this is found in the records 
of the city ; it is just recovering from the effects of a 
destructive fire. Within the past few years Point a 
Pitre has passed through at least four trying ordeals 
by the elements. First, it was shaken down by an 
earthquake ; then all the buildings were of stone, 
large and massive. Rebuilding their city, these in- 
domitable Frenchmen constructed their houses of 
wood. It was not long, not many years, before, in 
the language of my informant, " there came along the 
tallest kind of a hurricane, and tumbled their wooden 
houses into ruins." To add to the horrors, a fire 
broke out, which swept their city clean. The wise 
men cogitated, how to build to escape earthquake, fire, 
and hurricane. The result was the adoption of the 
present system of construction, with strong iron frame, 
filled in with brick or composite. The loss of life in 
these successive disasters has been fearful, but these 
courageous Creoles have faith in the future of their 
city ; and I doubt if they once give a thought to the 
mighty power against which they are contending, or 
that they are fighting forces controlled by Nature's 
laws, that always will operate in the same way and 
place, without regard to the little doings of mankind. 
But it was not to remain in Point a Pitre that I came 
here ; the blue mountains forty miles away beckoned 
me to their cool retreats, and before night I had en- 
gaged passage on board a little schooner, the "Siren," 
for Basse Terre, at the foot of the mountains. I left 
Point a Pitre in the evening — the sea like glass, the 
mosquitoes like fiends. For many hours we drifted 
aimlessly. The cabin was a black hole full of mer- 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 325 

chandise, and I was obliged to sleep on deck, which 
was covered with negroes. With a bulwark of fat and 
garrulous negroes, men and women, on either side of 
me, I stretched myself upon a narrow ledge and fell 
asleep. If those blacks had given way, I would have 
been lost. To their credit be it said, they did not, but 
sat there the livelong night, and soothed me to sleep 
with the musical numbers of their patois. The night 
was dark, the sky black, with stars shining in it as 
through holes in a vaulted roof. In the middle of 
the night there came up a rain-storm, driving, pitiless. 
Awakened by the plashing of drops in my face, I 
drew my rubber poncho over me and fell asleep again 
to the murmur of their patter on the waves. 

These are historic waters. I was coasting a shore 
along which sailed the caravels of Columbus ; but 
even the consciousness of this fact could not induce 
me to go to the rail and peer into the darkness for 
some ancient landmark. Spite of historic reminis- 
cence, and in spite of my odorous enclosure of natives, 
I slept the sleep of the just man who is taking his 
second night's rest in his clothes ; thanks to years of 
camp life. 

I have said that this was historic ground, this island 
of Guadeloupe, and fraught with deeds dear to 
America's existence, these waters that lave its shores. 
Let me quote, in confirmation, the words of Irving as 
he describes the second vovage of Columbus : " The 
islands among which Columbus had arrived were a 
part of that beautiful cluster called by some the An- 
tilles, which sweep almost in a semicircle from the 
eastern end of Porto Rico to the coast of Paria on the 
Southern continent During the first day that 



326 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

he entered this archipelago, Columbus saw no less 
than six islands of different magnitude. After seek- 
ing in vain for good anchorage at Dominica, he stood 
for another of the group, to which he gave the name 
of his ship, Marigalante. Here he landed, displayed 
the royal banner, and took possession of the archi- 
pelago in the name of his sovereigns. The island 
appeared to be uninhabited ; a rich and dense forest 
overspread it; some of the trees were in blossom, 
others laden with unknown fruits, others possessing 
spicy odors, among which was one with the leaf of 
the laurel and the fragrance of the clove. Hence 
they made sail for an island of larger size, with a 
remarkable mountain ; one peak, which proved after- 
ward the crater of a volcano, rose to a great height, 
with streams of water gushing from it." [This is the 
volcano I hope to reach by and by.] "As they ap- 
proached within three leagues, they beheld a cataract 
of such height that, to use the words of the narrator, 
it seemed to be falling from the sky. As it broke into 
foam in its descent, many at first believed it to be a 
stratum of white rock. To this island, which was 
called by the natives Turuquetra, the admiral gave 
the name of Guadeloupe, having promised the monks 
of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, in Estremadura, to call 
some newly-discovered place after their convent. 
Landing here on the 4th of November, 1493, they 
visited a village near the shore, the inhabitants of 
which fled in affright, leaving their children behind 
in their terror and confusion. The island on this side 
extended for a distance of five-and-twenty leagues, 
diversified with lofty mountains and broad plains." 
This was the first island in which Columbus saw 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 327 

the wonderful Car/'bs, of whom he had heard so much 
in Hispaniola. The account he gave of their neat 
villages, of the finding here of the fragment of a 
vessel, and the first pine-apple, is extremely interest- 
ing, as are all descriptions of first things, or the 
discovery of things previously unknown, to us of the 
present day. 

And this coast, which I later saw in all its grandeur 
of lofty cliffs and towering mountains, in its loveliness 
of curving bays and palm-bordered beaches, this 
coast was right abeam, hidden behind the impene- 
trable wall of night. A second time I sought a land- 
ing on Guadeloupe shore before daylight. We sailed 
into the roadstead of Basse Terre, on the open sea at 
the southern end of the island. Darkness covered 
everything ; a few cocks commenced crowing, a few 
lights gleamed out. At five, a gun boomed out from 
the fort, and the cathedral bell commenced at once, 
as if from the vibration, tolling for early mass. Day- 
light crawled slowly in and revealed the open market 
by the landing, already crowded with people, the 
noise of whose wrangling had reached us long since. 

Basse Terre is the seat of government of Guade- 
loupe, as Fort de France is that of Martinique. Like 
Fort de France, also, it is chosen by these far-seeing 
Frenchmen as the depcit of government property, that 
other towns, like that of Point a Pitre, and St. Pierre 
of Martinique, may not, by their superior advantages 
for commerce and trade, draw all the population 
thither. To this end, the distribution of wealth, 
and the better cultivation of the soil, the French 
have covered both their islands with roads, in striking 
contrast to the rough bridle-paths of the English 



328 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

islands equally mountainous. The government build- 
ings are in the upper part of the town between two 
rivers, behind a large stone fort. They surround 
three sides of a square bordered by mighty palmistes, 
and with an elegant fountain of bronze as center-piece. 
North and east of the town tower the mountains, the 
land commencing to rise to their summits at its very 
outskirts ; its upper streets lead into the hills. The 
houses are built of stone, but are not large or pre- 
tentious. The streets are straight, parallel with the 
shore, and at right angles with it. In the center of 
the town is an open market-place, in which is a foun- 
tain fed from the mountains, around which is a row 
of tamarind trees. All the serving-women of the place 
come to this fountain to fill their jars with the cool 
water that perpetually drips from the bronze lips of 
the basin. The cathedral, or more properly the 
Basilique, is a good old structure of stone, dating 
from the time of Le Pere Labat. 

As the founder of this town, and an author of note, 
whose valuable book on the Antilles contains the most 
comprehensive account of these islands, this worthy 
pere deserves especial notice. Born in Paris in 1663, 
he joined the Dominican friars in 1685, and two years 
later was appointed professor of mathematics and 
philosophy at Nancy. In 1693, while in Paris, he 
saw letters from the Superior of that order in Marti- 
nique to the Brothers in France, imploring them to 
send out missionaries to replace those who had died 
from- contagious disease. Seizing this opportunity for 
consecrating himself to mission work, and carrying 
out a resolution he had a long time cherished, he 
departed for Martinique, arriving there in January, 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 329 

1694. Two years later he was sent to Guadeloupe. 
Later, returning to Martinique, he found his place 
occupied by another, and was, as a mark of confi- 
dence, appointed procurcur general of the mission. 
In this capacity he visited all the isles of the Antilles, 
French, English, and Dutch; but passed the greater 
portion of his time in Martinique and Guadeloupe. 
In 1703 he founded the town of Basse Terre, and 
took an active part in the defence of the island against 
the attack of the English, in March of the same year. 
The "Bellicose Pere Blanc" as he was called by the 
people of the island, could not prevent his monastery 
from being burned, by which disaster he lost all his 
books, manuscripts, and instruments. He returned to 
France in 1705, resided in Paris and Rome, and in 
the former city prepared his different voyages for 
publication. He there died in 1738. His mosfim- 
portant work, "JVouveau Voyage aux lies d'Amer- 
Iquc" is as valuable as it is at the present time rare. 
It was published in Paris in 1722. He wrote, besides, 
six large works of travel, chiefly from the manuscripts 
of other travelers. A genus of plants, containing a 
species indigenous to Cuba and one to Cayenne, was 
named, in his honor, Labatia. The old Basilique re- 
mains, in defiance of earthquakes and hurricanes, a 
monument to the activity and zeal of this £ood father. 
Its front, however, was rebuilt a few years ago. 

During my sta}- in Basse Terre I was struck by the 
number of children fatherless and motherless, and 
upon inquiry was told that these orphans, whose 
sweet faces so appealed to one's sympathy, were sur- 
vivors of the great cholera plague not many years 
since, in which some fifteen thousand persons, I be- 



33° CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

lieve, were swept away. Outside the town, but a few 
minutes' walk along the bluff, lies the cemetery, where 
crosses and quaint tombs mark the last resting-places 
of many poor souls. Beyond, below this place of 
sepulchre, is a depression in the hillside, which, I 
was told, was once a deep ravine, into which were 
cast the bodies of those who died of the plague. So 
rapidly were they stricken down that people enough 
could not be found to bury them, and the living hardly 
sufficed to take away the dead. Finally vessels were 
employed, which; laden with corpses, departed one 
after the other into the offing with their freight of 
death. There was scant ceremony in the carrying 
away of these stricken ones from the place where 
once they had enjoyed life to be given over to the 
dwellers of the deep ! For many months the corpses 
strewed the strand, and fish from the sea were ban- 
ished from the tables of the island for a twelvemonth 
after. What is remarkable in this plague is, that it 
extended to the higher and generally healthy mountain 
villages, and killed as ruthlessly as along the heated 
coast. 

The heat in town was intense, and I was glad to 
be allowed to depart for the mountains, after having 
been compelled to wait for my permit to shoot. Every 
one desirous of shooting in these islands is compelled 
to pay ten francs for a fiermis de chasse, which the 
French official, with characteristic courtesv to a stran- 
ger, gave me without the usual fee. It was a lengthy 
document, exceeding in size my American passport 
from the Secretary of State ; and, in the comparison 
of the two papers, each of which affects to describe 
me accurately, there is much food for reflection upon 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 33I 

the fallibility of passport-makers. Indeed, were I 
furnished with a few more accurate descriptions, I 
should certainly lose my identity and wander about in 
a maze of uncertainty, feeling, like those immortal 
twins, decidedly mixed. My American description 
gives my eyes as brown, mouth small, nose straight, 
hair brown, and face oval. To this a justice of the 
peace has affixed hand and seal. A French official, 
in the name of the governor, positively asserts that 
eyes and eyebrows are black, mouth large (bouche 
graudc), nose aquiline, "visage ovale" and com- 
plexion blanc — which is supposed to be light. To 
avoid any unpleasantness with the numerous gen- 
darmes who patrol the country, I carried both pa- 
pers. 

Armed, then, with my -pcrmis de c/iasse, and sped 
on my way with a heartv bon voyage from the chief 
of police, I turned my horse's head toward the moun- 
tains. He was a picturesque animal, that horse; and 
when I say picturesque, I use the term in its most 
artistic sense, for by no other can I do justice to his 
man) r projecting points, bold features, and rough angu- 
larities. He, indeed, was a horse of many points — 
good ones, too, perhaps, in a certain sense. Hang- 
ing my umbrella from one of his shoulder-blades, and 
grasping his mane with one hand, I vaulted into the 
dilapidated saddle, deeply sunken between loins and 
withers. With a groan he started forward, putting in 
motion his somewhat formidable array of joints, and I 
ascended the hills to the rattle of bones. 

Beyond the government buildings is the Convent 
of Versailles, where the girls of the island are edu- 
cated ; and higher up, occupying a broad plateau 



33 2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

some fifteen hundred feet above the sea, is the sum- 
mer camp of the governor and the troops. Spacious 
buildings, including a hospital, barracks, and gov- 
ernor's house, are almost hidden by trees, among 
which the palmiste towers conspicuous with its gray 
column and green coronet. Passing these, my road 
led me to a little hamlet on the mountain-side over- 
looking the Caribbean Sea, called Matouba. Nearly 
all its little thatched houses were full, as the people 
of Basse Terre, all who can afford it, come up here 
at this, the sickly season, to enjoy the baths and the 
cool air. Through the kindness of a friend I was able 
to hire a small room, one of two, in a little thatched 
hut eighteen feet by fourteen. The other half, sepa- 
rated by a partition, over which I could easily make a 
hand-spring, was occupied by the owner of the house, 
his wife, brother, and three children. Contentedly I 
swung my hammock from two corners of the room, 
thanking a good Providence that I could enjoy all by 
myself as much room as sufficed for the other six. 

For ten days I remained in Matouba, roaming over 
the coffee plantations and climbing the hills in quest 
of birds. Many streams dash hurriedly down from 
the mountain, and there are waterfalls and cascades, 
and high up the hill is the bain chaud, a warm spring 
difficult of access. Tired of the continual rain, and 
wishing for the society of some one speaking my own 
language, I set off one morning, under guidance of 
my boy "Co-co," to find the mayor of a neighboring 
commune — the commune of St. Claude — who could, 
I was told, speak English. Passing through the little 
village, I entered a higher region devoted to coffee 
plantations, and climbed to a spur of the Soufri£re, 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 333 

right beneath the volcano itself, where I found a com- 
fortable little country house, was greeted in English 
by the proprietor, who had heard of me before, and 
welcomed. A delightful week was passed here, for 
my host, Monsieur Colardeau, was a graduate of Yale 
College, and had lived in America, practicing his 
profession of physician, for eighteen years. He was 
a naturalist withal, and the remainder of that day was 
devoted to the animal life of the mountains, and espe- 
cially the birds. 

The "hurricane season," from July through Octo- 
ber, is one of calms, tempests, and rains, and it was 
several days before the weather cleared sufficiently 
for me to undertake the ascent of the Soufriere. At 
last, one night, just before the sun dipped beneath the 
sea, the jagged outlines of the volcano showed against 
a clear sky, and my friend predicted a fair day for 
the morrow. At daybreak, the Indian provided by 
my friend came for me ; not an Indian native to the 
island, they were long since extinct, but one from the 
far East, the land to which Columbus in his voyages 
thought he was discovering a shorter route — an In- 
dian under indenture, a coolie from Calcutta. He 
brought a knapsack full of provisions which Madame 
Colardeau had provided the night before, and he car- 
ried upon his head my photographic apparatus, and 
marched before me into the mists of the morning which 
came pouring down from the mountain-tops. After 
drinking a cup of black coffee, I seized my gun and 
followed my guide. 

Behind the house, far up the slope, stretched a broad 
area of coffee-trees, an inheritance, this coffee estate, 
from the ancestors of Monsieur Colardeau, who in no 



334 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

particular allowed it to deteriorate from its pristine 
vigor of a century ago. Coffee-trees of many years' 
growth grew by the side of young plants set out to 
replace the aged and enfeebled ones. The plantation 
is divided into small squares a few hundred feet in 
length, by long rows of quick-growing trees called 
■pois douce, -pomme rose, and oleander. This is to 
protect the tender coffee-plants from the wind, and 
from the hurricanes which sometimes ravage these 
islands. These long rows of high trees give the cof- 
fee estates a striated appearance at a distance. The 
coffee-tree is allowed to grow to a height of but six 
or eight feet, as this insures more perfect berries and 
renders the gathering easier. The younger plants 
are further protected and shaded by plantains and 
bananas, which attain a great height in a twelve- 
month. 

Coffee was early introduced into the West Indies. 
It is said that, of three plants entrusted to the captain 
of the first vessel bringing it, two died, and that the 
remaining one was only kept alive by water withheld 
from a famishing crew. The first coffee was grown 
in Martinique ; hence, though that island does not 
raise enough for its own consumption at the present 
time, all coffee exported from Guadeloupe is known 
as " Martinique coffee." Its cultivation is easy and 
pleasant, although somewhat expensive and difficult 
during the first years of its growth. Being generally 
situated on the mountains, the coffee plantations are 
considered as the most healthy and desirable places 
of residence in the West Indies. At the height of two 
thousand feet, in the mountains of Guadeloupe, the 
temperature varies from fifty-five degrees, Fahrenheit, 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 335 

during the winter months, to eighty degrees during 
the hottest days of August. A few miles below, on 
the sea-shore, it reaches one hundred degrees. 

The coffee-plants are raised from seeds generally 
sown in beds. When from fifteen to eighteen months 
old, the plants are transplanted from the nurseries 
into the fields at a distance of six feet apart each way. 
The young trees sometimes give- a light crop in the 
third year from setting out, and increase in yield from 
that time for several years. A coffee-tree is in its full 
strength and beauty at the age of twenty years, and 
will last a century. The tree blossoms, generally, 
every month from February to May. The fruit ripens 
from August to January, and is picked carefully by 
hand, there being ripe and green berries on the same 
branches, and, indeed, often blossoms also. As soon 
as the berries are all removed, the trees commence 
blossoming again, and so on for many years. The 
fruit, or "berry," as it is called, is red, and somewhat 
resembles a cherry, and is quite sweet. The kernel, 
which is the coffee, is divided into two parts with their 
flat sides adhering. 

After having been picked from the trees, the ber- 
ries are passed through a mill made for the purpose, 
which divides the red pulpy skins from the kernel. 
These last, which are the only parts saved, after a 
slight fermentation of a few hours, in order to remove 
the mucilaginous coating with which the)'' are cov- 
ered, are washed freely in cold water and then dried 
in the sun. They are still covered, after being dried, 
with a tough, yellowish pellicle, which is removed by 
placing the coffee in large mortars with ovoidal bot- 
toms, made of hard wood or iron, and under the 



336 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

action of heavy rounded pestles, working like the 
fulling-mills of woolen factories. Beneath these pes- 
tles, which are generally worked by water-power, the 
pellicles are broken off into small scales, like bran, 
and the coffee liberated. The whole is then carried 
to the fanning-mill, from which the coffee comes out 
freed from the chaff. Lastly, the coffee is spread 
upon large tables, and all the black, brown, or broken 
grains removed by hand ; though this is done only 
for the superior article called cafe bonijietir, which 
has a local value of two cents more per pound than 
that not thus treated. 

Nearly all the coffee raised in the island goes to 
France, where it is much sought after; but it is ex- 
pensive, its value being, in the island itself, from 
twenty-three to twenty-six cents, when purchased 
from the producers. Mocha coffee is raised only in 
small quantities, but it is of excellent quality. In 
order to increase the cultivation of coffee, the colonial 
government has lately offered a premium of forty dol- 
lars for every new hectare (two acres) thus planted. 
The coffee plantations do not interfere with the sugar 
estates, as they are generally on the mountains, while 
the latter occupy land near the seashore. There are, 
at present, nine hundred and sixty-five coffee estates 
in Guadeloupe. This description of coffee-culture was 
given me by Monsieur Colardeau. 

From the glossy green leaves gleamed berries, yel- 
low and red, giving a beautiful effect. In one of the 
squares I observed a large bed of strawberries, the 
only onesT have seen in these islands. Higher up I 
found a species of rubus, a raspberry found only in 
high altitudes, and the only representative of its family 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 337 

in these wilds. Beyond the limits of the coffee grove 
we came upon the borders of the high-woods, where 
one must go to see the vegetation of the tropics in its 
greatest perfection of growth and luxuriance. 

There is a suggestiveness of giant trees and a re- 
freshing thought of cool retreats in the appellation, 
universal throughout these islands, bestowed upon 
these high forests, to distinguish them from those of 
the lowland. As you set foot over the sharply-defined 
line of demarkation, you leave the sun with his scorch- 
ing beams behind, and enter a gloomy arch beneath 
a canopy of leaves. The trail is sinuous and slip- 
pery, and winds beneath huge trees, which we feel — 
for we cannot see their crowns — rear their heads 
aloft. Overhead is a leafy vault, through which the 
sun cannot send a gleam, save now and then a needle 
ray ; and through this vaulted roof are thrust up the 
trunks of mighty trees, with a diameter, from but- 
tress to buttress, of twenty feet. And these broad 
buttresses, which spread out on every side as sup- 
ports to the main trunk, are studies in themselves. 
In the spaces between them there is room to pitch 
a tent. Fifty, sixty feet up, begin the broad-armed 
limbs, which spread over a vast area ; and from these 
limbs depend attractive and wonderful ropes and cord- 
age of nature's making, which descend from out the 
canopy above as from the zenith of heaven, and touch- 
ing the earth, climb again into space, no one knows 
where, no one knows how. They are of all sizes, 
and twisted into every conceivable shape — some like 
huge hawsers and cables, and others small as bass- 
lines and stretched as straight and taut as the rig- 
ging of a ship. Surrounded by the net-work of lianes 



338 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

and lialines alone, the trunks would be barely visi- 
ble ; but this is not all. Up their rough circumfer- 
ence creep vines and climbing-plants, clinging closely 
and firmly by multitudinous rootlets, hung with broad 
and pendulous leaves. Attached again to the vines 
and lianes are groups and clusters of epiphytic and 
parasitic plants, some like pine-apples, some large as 
cabbages, some like huge callas ; and among them 
ferns and tillandsias, scores of species, piled, plant 
after plant, one above the other, in seeming confusion, 
each striving for a foothold in its aerial world. Now 
and then there will be a great spike of blossoms, crim- 
son, scarlet, or pure white, at which a humming-bird 
will dart, fluttering up and down, the whole scene 
reminding one of those lines in " Evangeline," where 
the vines — 

" Hung their ladder of ropes aloft, like the ladder of Jacob, 
On whose pendulous stairs the angels, ascending, descending, 
Were the swift humming-birds, that flitted from blossom to blos- 
som." 

No sound broke the solemn stillness of this moun- 
tain forest save the cooing of a distant wood-pigeon, 
and nothing showed itself except an occasional jyer- 
drix, or mountain partridge, as it flitted like a ghost 
across our path. Up and higher we ascended ; the 
trees diminished in size, and there came to our ears 
the murmur of falling water, which we could not see, 
from the rankness of the vegetation. Balisicrs, or 
wild plantains, with broad green leaves and spikes of 
crimson and golden cups, now lined the trail, and 
glorious tree-ferns, in majesty of beauty unsurpassed, 
spread their leaves above them. 

We reached the stream, and found it warm — so 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 339 

hot that vapor arose on this not too cool atmosphere. 
It was sulphur-impregnated, also, as the discolored 
leaves abundantly testified, and flowed over a bitu- 
minous bed. The luxuriance of the vegetation here 
was marvelous, and pen of mine cannot describe the 
beaut\' of the ferns, orchids, an^d parasites, arches and 
bridges of tropical trees and ferns, that overhung and 
spanned this tepid stream. A few rods farther up 
we came upon a basin of colorless water, walled off 
with blocks of lava, the overflow of which formed the 
stream. At it I cast a wistful glance, but could only 
stop to feel its warmth with my hand and note the 
beauty of the banks of ferns above it. Here we left 
my apparatus, plunged anew into a depth of green- 
wood, and commenced an ascent that, for steepness, 
left all former paths behind. We had to lift ourselves 
up by successive broad steps, and cling to roots and 
trees for aid. 

Emerging from the darkness of this tunnel-like 
passage, we came upon another zone of vegetation, 
where the trees were dwarfed to shrubs, and so inter- 
twined and matted together that a path had to be cut 
with the cutlass. Every native laborer of these islands 
carries a large and ugly-looking machete, or cutlass, 
nearly two and a half feet long and two inches broad, 
which serves them in a variety of ways. There we 
found the path washed into deep, cistern-like cavities, 
down which we descended on one side onky to climb 
out at the other. After much hard work this rough 
road was gone over, and we came abruptly upon a 
plain of small extent, and, looking up, saw the cone 
whose side we fain would climb. Straight before us 
was the trail of former tourists, which climbed directly 



340 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

up the mountain-side, so steep it seemed impossible to 
ascend it. There was no vegetation now to obstruct 
the view. All about us the plain and steep acclivity 
was covered with a matted carpet of coarse grass. 
Immediately above us towered an immense rock, so 
delicately poised and so far-jutting, that it appeared 
ready to fall. Undoubtedly, the next earthquake will 
dislodge and hurl it below, to join its fellows that 
thickly stud the plain beneath. For an hour and a 
half, with many stops for breath, we mounted up- 
ward, and made a final pause beneath the rock to 
gather strength to meet the tempest of wind that 
howled above. Here my taciturn guide pointed out 
a narrow ledge where a man died of exhaustion, and 
was found at midnight by my informant, who was 
sent in search of him, on his knees, with his face 
covered with his hands. 

Imagine an immense pyramid, truncated by some 
internal force that has rent the sides at the same time, 
leaving the summit-plane strewn with huge rocks, and 
reft in twain by a mighty chasm, and you have the 
Soufriere of Guadeloupe at the present da) 7 . We fol- 
lowed a narrow path over sounding rocks that told of 
caverns beneath, and entered, through a great portal 
formed by two adjacent rocks, upon a plateau cov- 
ered with a carpet of sphagnum and lycopodium, 
spangled with pink blossoms, wild hemp, and yellow, 
trumpet-shaped flowers. Narrow trails crossed and 
recrossed this little track, like rivers on a map. It 
was now eleven o'clock, and we stopped to lunch at 
the portal, — for, since my coffee, I had not tasted 
food that day, — then pursued our «way across the 
plateau. We reached a dark chasm, made as though 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 34I 




The £>oufriere of Guadeloupe. 

some Titan had rent the solid rock asunder — so deep 
that we could not see the bottom of the dark abyss 
until we stood upon a narrow bridge of rock that 
spanned the central space. The southern end is a 
perpendicular wall, running down into depths the eye 
cannot penetrate. From a fissure near its base arose 
blue fumes which stained the face of the cliff a long 
way up, as though away down in the earth's center, 
where the Vulcans are at work, there burned a very 
hot coal fire. 

We crossed the bridge and scaled the opposite cliff, 
and were greeted, at the top, with loud blasts and 



34 2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

snorts, like those of a high-pressure steamer, and vol- 
umes of vapor blown in our faces. Following this, I 
found an aperture in a mound of stones, sulphur-lined, 
only a few inches in diameter, through which was 
forced a column of steam with noises so loud that we 
could not hear each other speak. This aperture is in 
the center of a desolate area, having on its borders 
numerous openings, whence issue blasts of hot air 
that taint the atmosphere for many feet around. I 
peered into one, arched like an oven, and it was like 
a glimpse into the arcana of nature, — into the min- 
iature palace of a genie, — for the whole interior was 
encrusted with sulphur crystals glistening like yellow 
topaz ; and a small black passage led down into un- 
known depths, whence issued rumblings, groans, and 
grumblings. Up from this black throat came such 
blasts of old Vulcan's fetid breath, that I was glad to 
escape with only a few crumbling crystals for my 
pains. Ravines seam the sides of the cone in every 
direction, some spanned by natural bridges of rock ; 
but that to which I constantly recurred was that cen- 
tral gorge, with its wicked-looking throat, from which 
there have been two eruptions recorded — one in 1797, 
the other in 1815. Doubtless it will again, at some 
future time, act as the vent for the internal ebullitions 
of mother earth. 

According to Humboldt, the summit is over five 
thousand feet above the sea, and the view afforded 
me, as an occasional rift occurred in the masses of 
mist, was grand beyond description. Climbing to an 
elevated rock, I obtained shelter from the terrific gale 
that nearly swept me off my feet, and awaited a break 
in the cloud of mist. It came : I looked upon a scene 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 343 

well worth a year of common life to view. Beneath 
me, in full view, were those six islands discovered by 
Columbus on that memorable November day in 1493- 
Far away, east by north, lay Desirade, the first land 
seen by Columbus on his second voyage, a low, table- 
surfaced rock. South by east lay Dominica, looking 
like a glorious vision of cloud-land, the first of the 
Caribbees at which Columbus touched ; and east, right 
below, the island of Marigalante, where first in this 
archipelago the royal banner of Spain was displayed. 
I looked down to the eastward, over a sloping plain 
of verdure, upon forest almost as impenetrable and 
wide-spreading as on that day, nearly four centuries 
ago, when it resounded to the blasts of trumpets and 
the firing of arquebuses. For, the second day of his 
arrival here, one of the captains of the great admiral's 
fleet strayed into the forest with some men and was 
lost. For several days they wandered in trackless 
forest so dense as almost to exclude the light of day. 
"Some, who were experienced seamen, climbed the 
trees to get a sight of the stars by which to govern 
their course, but the spreading branches and thick 
foliage shut out all view of the heavens." A party 
sent in search wearied themselves in wading the many 
streams, which number, at this day, more than fifty. 

Almost under the cliffs of the volcano lay the 
Saintes, a cluster of rocky islets discovered on All- 
Saints' Day. There is a significance and poetic mean- 
ing attached to every name bestowed by Columbus 
on these islands, as witness those already mentioned. 
With but few exceptions, fortunately, they retain his 
perfect appellations. Away north is the triple crown 
of Montserrat, and I fancied I could discover the dim 



344 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

outlines of St. Kitts, an island named probably for the 
good giant who bore his lord aloft, rather than for the 
great navigator who discovered it. Farther yet, and 
forty miles out of sight, lies St. Eustatius, where the 
American flag was first saluted by a foreign power ; 
and a few miles beyond is Saba, a single volcanic 
peak, ending on the north this chain of volcanic 
islands. The Virgin Isles, named for St. Ursula and 
her ten thousand virgins, yet farther lie obscured. 
Nearer is Antigua, but low and dim. The curtains 
of mist again drew together, and I prepared to de- 
scend. 

This mountain was once the home of a bird of ill- 
omen, (described in former pages,) the Diablotin, 
or "Little Devil," which lived in holes in the rocks, 
and was hunted with dogs by the planters in olden 
time. Its discovery was my principal motive for 
ascending the Soufriere ; but I returned without find- 
ing a trace of its existence. Fatigued, and bathed 
in perspiration, I arrived at the hot bath, on the bor- 
ders of the high-woods, and plunged into its limpid 
waters ; but half an hour's immersion in its tepid cur- 
rent removed every trace of weariness, and I floated 
blissfully until the sinking sun warned me to be on 
the march again. 

Years ago — three hundred and sixty-five — there 
landed upon this island of Guadeloupe, Juan Ponce 
de Leon, noblest and gentlest of all those old con- 
quistador es, fresh from his discovery of Florida. But 
two years previously he had sailed in quest of that 
wonderful fountain of youth, lured on by the tales of 
the Indians of Cuba. And who knows but that he was 
still seeking that fountain of rejuvenescence when he 



ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 345 

essayed to explore these wilds and met with disastrous 
defeat from the Caribs? I have floated on the glassy 
surface of the wonderful spring of Wakulla, in Florida, 
and one winter's clay sailed down the bright waters 
of Silver Spring, and do not wonder that the simple 
natives should invest these mysterious creations with 
occult power. But it is a pit)' that the old Spaniard 
could not have found this mountain spring, one dip in 
which were worth a month's immersion in those of 
Florida. 

A velvet-backed humming-bird came down from 
the odorous banks above me — a tiny bird, with a 
Latin name too long to mention here — and danced 
in the sunlight, his garnet throat glow r ing like a coal 
in the departing beams, as I bade farewell to this 
enchanted spot and descended into the deep gloom 
of the high-woods. 



APPENDIX. 



From Proceedings of United States National 
Museum. 



A General Catalogue of the Birds noted from the Islands of the 
Lesser Antilles visited by Frederick A. Oberj with a Table 
showing their Distribution, and those found in the United 
States. 

By George N. Lawrence. 



Birds of the Lesser Antilles. 



TURDUS NIGRIROSTRIS, Lawr 
TURDUS CARIBB/SUS, Lawr . 



Turdus? 

Margarops herminieri (Lafr.) . . . . 
Margarops densirostris (Vieill.) . . . 
Margarops montamis (Vieill. ) . . . . 
Rampliocinclus brachyurus (Vieill.) . 
Cinclocerthia ruficauda, Gould . . . 
Cinclocerthia gutturalis, Lafr . . . , 

Mimus gilvus, Vieill 

Myiadestes genibarbis, S\v 

MVIADESTES SIBILANS, Lawr . . . 

Thrvothorus rufescens. Lawr . . 
Thrvothorus musicus, Lawr . . . 
Thrvothorus grenadensis, Lawr 
Thryothorus martinicensis, Scl. . . . 

Siurus nasvius (Bodd.) 

Siurus motacilla (Vieill.) 



X 



X 



X 



X 



v 



X 



X 



* New Species in small capitals. 



X 



X 



X 



347 



348 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Catalogue of Birds. — Continued. 





Birds of the Lesser Antilles. 


•a 
(S 


< 


a. 

J3 

6 


£ 
c 




3 

1 


a 
u 
c 

> 

'JO 


6 


-a 
"a 












X 
X 

X 


X 


X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 
X 

X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

X 


X 

X 
X 

X 

X 
X 

X 
X 
X 

X 
X 

X 
X 
X 

X 

X 
X 


X 


!9 








X 
X 


21 
22 


Dcndrceca petechia var. ruficapilla (Gm.) 
Dendrceca petechia var. melanop- 


X 


X 














23 














2 4 






X 
X 


X 
X 


X 

X 
X 

X 


X 

X 
X 


X 


25 
26 

27 






VlREOSYLVIA CALIDRIS VAR. DOMINICANA, 






28 
















X 
X 




29 
30 
31 




X 


X 




32 












X 
X 




33 








X 


X 




34 










35 
36 








X 
X 
X 


X 
X 
X 


X 
X 
X 




a a or gua e oupen , 


X 

X 


X 
X 




37 
38 






39 


O ' S 1 " fl t " ' Sw 










X 

X 

X 

X 
X 




40 


/^ T awr 






X 






41 










42 








X 


X 
X 




43 
44 




X 






45 
46 

47 
48 




X 


X 




X 
X 


. . 


49 
5° 
5i 


Eulampis jugularis (Linn.) 


X 


X 


X 
X 


X 
X 
X 


X 
X 

X 
X 


X 
X 

X 

X 


• • 


5 2 
53 
54 
55 
56 




X 


X 


X 














5S 

59 


5 




















X 









APPENDIX. 

Catalogue of Birds. — Continued. 



349 



Birds of the Lesser Antilles. 



Cypseloidcs niger (Gm.) 



Melanerpes l'herminieri (Less.) 

Ceryle alcyon (Linn.) 

Ceryle torquata (Linn.) 

Coccyzus minor (Gm.) 

Cio.uihnga ani, Linn 

Chrysotls augusta (Vig.) 

Chrysotis guildingi (Vig.) 

Parrot sp.? 

Strix flammea var. nigrkscens, Lawr. 

Speotyto am aura, Lawr 

Pandion halixtus (Linn.) 

Enteo pennsylvanicus (Wils.) 

Uribitinga anthracina (Nitzsch.) ? .... 

Falco communis var. anatum, Bp. ? . . . 

Tinnunculus sparverius var. antillarum 
(Gm.; 

Fregata aquila (Linn.) 

Phxthon aMhereus (Linn.) 

Phxthon flavirostris, Brandt .... 

Pelecanus fuscus (Linn.) 

Sula fiber (Linn.) 

Ardca herodias, Linn 

Herodias egretta (Gm.) 

Garzjtta candicissima (Gm.) .... 

Florida cocrulea (Linn.) 

Butorides virescens (Linn.) X 

Nyctiardea vio'.acea (Linn.) . . 

Platalea ajaja (Linn.) . 

Dafila bahamensis (Linn.) 

I glaucion (Linn.) 

Columba corensis, Gm 

Columba leucocephala, Linn .... 

Zenaida martinicana, Bp 

Chamaepelia passerina (Linn.) . . . . 

Geotrygon montana (L'nn.) 

Geotrygon mystacea (Temm.) .... 

Numidia meleagris (Linn.) 

Ortyx virginianus (Linn.) 

Rallus crepitans, Gm 

Porzana? 

Porphyrio martinicus (Linn.) .... 



X 



X X 

X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



x ! x 

X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



35° 



CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Catalogue of Birds. — Continued. 



Birds of the Lesser Antilles. 



Gallinnla galeata (Licht. ) . . . 
Fulica? 

Squatarola helvetica (Linn.) . 
Characlrius virginicus, Borkh. . 
iEgialitis semipalmata (lip.) . 
Strepsilas interpres (Linn.) . . 
Himantopus nigricollis (Vieill.) 
Gallinago wilsoni (Temm.) . . 
Tringa minutilla, Vieill. . . . 
Tringa maculata (Vieill.) . . . 
Calidris arenaria (Linn.) . . . 
Ereunetes petrificatus (111.) . • 
Symphemia semipaln»ata (Cm ) 
Gambetta flavipes (Gra.) . . . 
Gambetta melanoleuca (Cm.) . . 
Rhyacophilus solitarius (Wils. ) 
Tringoides macularius (Linn.) , 
Numenius longirostris (Wils.) . 
Numenius hudsonicus (Lath.) . 
Anous stolidns (Linn.) .... 

Sterna maxima, Bodd 

Sterna dougalli, Mont 

Sterna an tillarum (Less. ) . . . 
Sterna fuliginqsa (Gra.) . . . 
Sterna ansestheta, Scop. . . . 
Larus atricilla (Linn. ) .... 
JSstrelata? 



Podilymbus podicops (Linn.)? 



X 



X 



< 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X 



> 



X 



X 



X 



X 



X X 



The separate catalogues comprised in the above general one are 
all published in the " Proceedings of the United States National 
Museum," Washington, Vol. I., that of the Birds of Dominica 
occupying pp. 46-69 ; that of St. Vincent, pp. 185-198; those of 
Antigua and Barbuda, pp. 232-242 ; that of Grenada, pp. 265-278 ; 
that of Martinique, pp. 349-360 ; that of Guadeloupe, pp. 449-462. 



New York, March 20, iS 



APPENDIX. 351 

[From the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.] 
BY GEORGE N. LAWRENCE. 

Description of New Species of Birds. Island 
of Dominica. 

An exploration of some of the least known of the West India 
islands, for the purpose of elucidating their natural history, has 
been undertaken by Mr. Fred. A. Ober, of Beverly, Massachusetts, 
under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. 

He has already sent every species heretofore obtained in Domi- 
nica, with twenty-three additional ones. His first collection consists 
of one hundred and fifty specimens, embracing thirty-one species, 
three of which I consider new and have described below. Of this 
collection he writes as follows : "The first collection was made in 
the mountains of the Caribbean side of Dominica, though it includes 
also birds of the lower hills and valleys, there seeming to be but few 
kinds of the low lands that do not ascend to the mountains ; though 
there are many birds of the mountains and upper valleys that never 
descend into the low country near the coast." 

Besides the three species of humming-birds well known as inhab- 
itants of the island, I was greatly surprised to find another species 
in the collection, viz., Tltalurania Wagleri, of which there are seven 
specimens — ali males. The only locality heretofore given for it is 
Brazil, and it is considered rather rare ; it looks now as if its head- 
quarters were Dominica, yet it seems strange that none are recorded 
from any intermediate place. It would appear to be not uncommon, 
as more specimens were sent than of Eiilampis holosericeus and Or- 
thorhyncus cxilis, which are abundant species. Eulampis jugularis 
was sent in large numbers. On the label of one of the examples of 
T. Wagleri is, " Sulphur lake, 2,300 feet above the sea." 

The second collection was made on the eastern or Atlantic side 
of the island; it contains eighty-two specimens, and has in it ten 
additional species, but no novelties. There are two specimens of 
that fine and rare species of parrot, Chrysotis augusla. 

i. Thryothorus rufescens. " Rosignol." 

Male. Entire plumage rufous, much deeper in color above, of a 
lighter and brighter shade underneath ; tail dark rufous, regularly 
and closely crossed with narrow bars of black ; the coloring of the 
under part of the tail is duller, but is barred in a similar manner; 
inner webs of quills blackish-brown, outer webs and both webs of 



352 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

the innermost secondaries dark rufous, with distinct narrow bars of 
black ; upper mandible dark-brown, the under yellowish-white ; feet 
pale brown. 

Length, 4| in.; wing, 2\ ; tail, if; tarsus, 11; bill from front, T 9 g ; 
from rictus, f. 

Type in National Museum, Washington. 

2. Dendroeca -plumb ea. 

Male. The whole of the upper plumage is dark plumbeous ; a 
narrow white line extends from the bill, over and beyond the eye, 
and there is a white mark on the lower eyelid ; the lores are black ; 
the under plumage is of a lighter plumbeous than that of the upper; 
the chin, middle of the throat and of the breast intermixed with 
white, center of abdomen white ; the two middle tail-feathers, and 
the outer webs of the others, are like the back in color ; the inner 
webs are blackish slate-color ; on the inner web of the outer tail- 
feather, at the end, is a spot of white ; on the next feather is a 
smaller one, and the next two have only a terminal edging of white ; 
the middle and greater wing-coverts have their outer webs of the 
color of the back, and their inner webs black ; they end conspicu- 
ously with white, forming two bars across the .wings ; quills with 
their outer webs like the back, and their inner blackish slate-color ; 
under wing-coverts and axillars white ; upper mandible black, the 
under light horn-color ; tarsi and toes light brown. 

Length (skin), $\ in. ; wing, 2 T \ ; tail, 2\ ; tarsus, f ; bill from 
front, fg. 

The female is above of a dark greenish olive ; it has black lores, 
with a white stripe over the eye and on the lower eyelid, just as in 
the male ; below it is of a much lighter or grayish-olive, the chin, 
middle of the throat and of the breast mixed with pale yellowish- 
white, the middle of the abdomen is pale yellow ; the ends of the 
wing-coverts, the under wing-coverts, and the axillars, are white, 
with just a tinge of yellow ; the spots at the ends of the tail-feathers, 
as in the male, but less distinct ; bill and feet of the same color as 
those of the male. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

3. Vireosylvia calidris^ var. Dominicana. 
[Dominica Catalogue, p. 55.] 



APPENDIX. 353 

4. Myiarchus Oberi. "Sunset Bird." 

Male. Pileum, nape, and sides of the head dark umber-brown, 
upper plumage dark olive-brown, upper tail-coverts edged with dull 
ferruginous : two middle tail-feathers blackish brown, the other feath- 
ers are colored the same, except on the outer two- thirds of the inner 
webs, where they are bright ferruginous; outer web of lateral feather 
and ends of the others, ash color; quills brownish black, the prima- 
ries narrowly edged with dark ferruginous; the outer secondaries 
are margined with very pale rufous, and the other secondaries with 
.pale yellowish white ; wing-coverts dark-brown, ending with pale 
ashy tinged with rufous ; under wing-coverts pale, dull yellow, inner 
margins of quills light salmon-color ; lores, throat, upper part of 
breast, and sides, clear bluish-gray, lower part of breast, abdomen, 
and under tail-coverts, pale yellow ; bill and feet deep black. 

Length, S-f in. ; wing, i\ ; tail, 3| ; tarsus, \ ; bill from front, \\. 

The female does not differ in plumage from the male. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This is a large species, exceeding M. crinitus in 
size ; the fourth quill is longest, the third and fifth nearly as long, 
and equal ; the bill is large and strong, and of a deep black through- 
out ; the upper plumage is dark, much like that of M. tyraunulus, 
but is even darker. 

In the collection are seven specimens. They agree closely in plu- 
mage ; two only differ from the type in the dimensions of the wing, 
one having it three and three-quarters, and the other four inches in 
length. 

Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1864) records a species of Myiarchus from 
Dominica, which was for a good while undetermined. In a List of 
Birds from St. Lucia, given by Mr. Sclater (P. Z. S., 1871, p. 271), he 
refers it to M. erythrocercus. 

I have a specimen of this species from Bahia (verified by Mr. Scla- 
ter) ; on comparison I find the two birds to differ very decidedly. 

J/, erythrocercus is smaller ; above it is of a lighter brown, more 
ochreous, especially on the crown ; the bill is weaker and more 
depressed ; they are somewhat alike in the coloration of the tail- 
feathers, but the line of contact of the two colors is more decided 
in .U. Oberi. 

I do not determine that this is the same as the species obtained 
by Mr. Taylor ; possibly the two forms may exist in Dominica. 

I have named this species in compliment to Mr. Fred. A. Ober, 
who has so industriously worked up the avifauna of Dominica. 



354 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



5. Blacicus brunneicafilhis. 

Blacicus Blancoi, Lawr., nee Gundlach. 

Male. The plumage above is of a clear olive-brown, assuming 
an ochreous cast on the rump ; the crown is of a much darker 
brown, forming a decided cap ; tail and quill-feathers brownish- 
black ; the tertials are edged with very pale fulvous ; the throat is 
gray with just a tinge of fulvous on the lower part ; middle of 
breast, abdomen, and under wing-coverts reddish-ochreous, under 
tail-coverts of the same color, but paler ; sides of the breast oliva- 
ceous ; upper mandible black, the under pale yellowish-white ; tarsi 
and toes brownish-black. 

Length (fresh), 5| inches ; wings, 2-| ; tail, 2| ; tarsus, f . 

Habitat, Dominica. Mr. Ober says : " Everywhere abundant in 
the ravines and dark valleys of the mountains." 

Type in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. In "A Provisional List of the Birds of Dominica," 
published in 'Forest and Stream,' December 6, 1877, this bird was 
put as Blacicus Blancoi, Gundlach. Wishing to make a comparison 
with the type, I desired Dr. Gundlach to loan it to me for that pur- 
pose, with which request he kindly complied. The specimen was 
received quite recently, and I found that, though closely allied, the 
two birds are quite distinct. 

B. Blancoi is from Porto Rico ; the specimen sent is mounted, 
and is of somewhat smaller dimensions than the bird from Domin- 
ica ; the wing measures 2-| inches ; the tail, i\ ; the tarsus, T 9 g. The 
crown is olive-brown, which color gradually merges into the greenish- 
olive of the back and rump. In the new species the crown is deep 
brown, and the upper plumage olive-brown ; it also differs in having 
the throat gray, which in the other is light fulvous ; the color of the 
abdomen is rather paler than it is in B. Blancoi. 

In another specimen of the new species, a female, "in young of 
the year plumage," the feathers of the wings and back are strongly 
marked with rufous, yet the upper plumage is as decidedly brown as 
in the adult, and the throat gray. 

6. Strix flammed, var, nigrescens. 
[Dominica Catalogue, p. 64.] 



APPENDIX. 355 

7. Chcetura Dominicana. " Hirondelle." 

Chert ura poliura, Lawr. (nee Temm.), Proc. U. S. National Museum, 

page 62. 

Male. Upper plumage smoky-black; lores black; rump dark 
ash ; upper tail-coverts brownish-black, just edged with whitish ; tail 
glossy black, the spines fine and projecting for nearly a quarter of 
an inch ; wings glossy black ; throat dark grayish-ash ; breast and 
abdomen of a warm smoky-brown ; under tail-coverts brownish- 
black ; bill black ; feet yellowish-brown. 

Length (fresh), 4§ inches ; wing, 4^ ; tail, if. 

The female is similar to the male in plumage. 

Habitat, Dominica. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. In my Catalogue of the Birds of Dominica (Proc. U. 
S. Nat. Mus. 1878), I referred this species provisionally to C. poli- 
ura, Temm., being partly induced to do so because that species was 
noted from Tobago, comparatively a not very distant point. I then 
stated that it agreed quite well with the measurements given of that 
species by Mr. Sclater, in his Notes of the Cypselidas (Proc. Zool. 
Soc, 1865, p. 593), but that the wing was shorter. The measure- 
ment of 3^ inches, given by me, was taken from Mr. Ober's note, and 
is clearly an error, as, in the four specimens sent, the wings of each 
measure 4^ inches. 

Quite lately I received a collection made in Tobago by Mr. Ober, 
and found in it an example of C. brachvura, Jard., which Mr. Sclater 
says, "Does not seem to be decidedly different from C. poliura, 
Temm., although the tail is rather shorter and the upper coverts are 
much produced, so as to reach nearly to the end of the rectrices." 
In Mr. Ober's example from Tobago, the upper coverts reach quite 
to the end of the tail-feathers. 

The species from Dominica is very distinct, and I think is unde- 
scribed. The Tobago bird is blacker above, and has the abdomen 
also black ; it is at once distinguished by its light ashy upper tail- 
coverts. 

The only other species requiring notice, if it really does, is the 
Hirundo acuta, Gm., from Martinique, which does not seem to be 
recognized by late writers, and is not noticed by Mr. Sclater in his 
Notes of the Cypselidas. The locality given for it, Martinique, is 
what has induced me to allude to it. 

Gmelin's name is based upon the " Sharp-tailed Swallow " of 



35^ CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Latham, who gives the size as that of a wren, " length three inches 
and eight lines;" he cites Buffon and Brisson. It is " L'Hiron- 
delle noire acutipenne de la Martinique " of Buffon, PI. Enl., No. 
544. He describes it as being very small, the size of a wren, the 
length 3 inches and 8 lines ; the whole upper part of the body with- 
out exception black, etc., the wings extending beyond the tail eight 
lines. Boddaert refers this to H. pelasgia, Linn., but they do not 
agree in size or color. 

8. Dendroeca -petechia, var. melanoptera. 

[Guadeloupe Catalogue, p. 453.] 

9. £>iiiscalus Guadeloupensts. 
[Guadeloupe Catalogue, p. 457.] 

New Species of Owl, from Antigua. 
10. Speotyto amaura. 

"Owl. Length, $ , 8^ in. ; alar extent, 21^ ; wing, 6f. 

" Length, 9 , 8-^ in. ; alar extent, 21 ; wing, 6L 

" Iris bright yellow. Called here, 'coo coo,' from its hoot at night. 
I considered it for a time as almost mythical, reports concerning its 
existence were so conflicting. Some described it as a large Bat, 
others asserted that it was (judging from the size of its eyes) as large 
as a ' Guinea Bird ' ; all agreed that it was a night-bird, that it lived 
in old drains, holes in the cliffs, and ruined walls : and that its hoot 
would strike terror to the stoutest heart. 

" Like its congener of Dominica, it has a bad name ; and though 
it may not be called here, as in Dominica, the ' Jumbie Bird,' or bird 
of evil spirits, — the name implies more than that, — still it has the 
reputation of being a bad character. The blacks declare that it will 
not hesitate to tear the eyes out of any individual unfortunate enough 
to meet it at night. 'Me rudder see de debbil, any time,' is their 
forcible way of testifying to the powers, supernatural and otherwise, 
possessed by this poor owl. Finding it impossible to shoot one, I 
offered a reward of two shillings for the first owl brought me, and 
within three hours had three living birds which the men dug out of 
a cliff in the Chalk-hills. One that I kept two days gave frequent 
utterance to a chattering cry, especially if any one approached, but it 
did not hoot. It feeds upon lizards and mice, it is said." 

Male. Upper plumage of a fine deep brown color, marked with 
roundish spots of light fulvous ; the spots are smallest on the crown, 



APPENDIX. 357 

hind neck, and smaller wing-coverts ; they are conspicuously large 
on the other wing-coverts, the dorsal region, scapulars, and tertials ; 
the quills are blackish-brown with indented marks of pale reddish 
fulvous on the outer webs of the primaries, and large roundish paler 
spots on the inner webs ; under wing-coverts reddish fulvous, sparse- 
ly mottled with black ; tail dark brown, of the same color as the 
back, crossed with four bars (including the terminal one), of light 
reddish fulvous, which do not quite reach the shaft on each web; 
bristles at the base of the bill black, with the basal portion of their 
shafts whitish ; front white, superciliary streak pale fulvous ; cheeks 
dark brown, the feathers tipped with fulvous ; upper part of throat 
pale whitish buff, the lower part grayish-white, with a buffy tinge, 
separated by a broad band of dark brown across the middle of the 
throat, the feathers of which are bordered with light fulvous ; the 
sides of the neck and the upper part and sides of the breast are dark 
brown, like the back, the feathers ending with fulvous, the spots 
being larger on the breast ; the feathers of the abdomen are pale 
fulvous, conspicuously barred across their centers with dark brown ; 
on some of the feathers the terminal edgings are of the same color; 
the flanks are of a clear light fulvous, with bars of a lighter brown ; 
under tail-coverts fulvous, with indistinct bars of brown ; thighs 
clear fulvous, with nearly obsolete narrow dusky bars ; the feathers 
of the tarsi are colored like the thighs and extend to the toes ; bill 
clear light yellow, with the sides of the upper mandible blackish ; 
toes dull yellowish-brown. 

Length (fresh), S^ in. ; wing, 6f ; tail, 3! ; tarsus, 1^. 
The female differs but little from the male in plumage ; the bars 
on the abdomen appear to be a little more strongly defined, and at the 
base of the culmen is a small red spot. There are two females in 
the collection, the other also having the red spot ; in one the tarsi 
are feathered to the toes, in the other only for two-thirds their length. 
Length of one (fresh), 8 in. ; wing, 6^ ; tail, 2\ ; tarsus, i\. 
Length of the other, 8-^ ; wing, 6\ ; tail, 3; tarsus, 1^. 
Mr. Ridgway suggested a comparison with his S. guadeloupen- 
sis, the type of which belongs to the Boston Natural History Society, 
and by the courtesy of Dr. Brewer I have been able to make it. 

Compared with guadeloupensis, the prevailing color is dark brown, 
instead of a rather light earthy-brown, and the spots on the inter- 
scapular region are much larger ; it is more strikingly barred below, 
the other having the breast more spotted ; the bars on the tail are 
four instead of six. In the Antigua bird each feather of the breast 
is crossed with but one bar, while those of the other are crossed 
with two. 



35$ CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

11. My iar chits Sclateri. 
[Martinique Catalogue, p. 357.] 

Descriptions of Seven New Species of Birds from 
the Island of St. Vincent, West Indies. 

When Mr. Ober had completed his investigations in Dominica he 
proceeded to St. Vincent ; but unfortunately, while there, he had two 
attacks of fever, one early in October, from which he soon recovered, 
but in December he had a relapse ; by this he was completely pros- 
trated, and it was not until the end of January that he was convales- 
cent. 

There were also constant rains, and consequently his collecting was 
seriously interfered with. He thinks, however, that the specimens 
obtained, and the birds observed, complete quite thoroughly the avi- 
fauna of the island. 

He left for the island of Grenada about the 1st of March, at 
which time he forwarded to the Smithsonian the collection made in 
St. Vincent. There are only ninety specimens, representing thirty- 
five species ; seven of these I consider new to science, and their 
descriptions are given below. Besides the species sent, he enumer- 
ates twenty-four others, which he either saw, or had named to him 
as undoubtedly frequenting the island : making the total number 
fifty-nine. 

1 2 . Turdus n ig rirostris . 

Female. Front, crown, and occiput dark warm brown, each 
feather of the crown and occiput with a shaft-stripe of dull pale rufous ; 
upper plumage reddish olivaceous brown, deeper in color on the 
upper part of the back and on the wing-coverts ; the latter have 
their ends marked with small spots of bright rufous, which possibly 
may be an evidence of the example not being fully mature ; the tail 
is of a dark warm brown, the shafts black ; inner webs of quills black- 
ish-brown ; the outer webs reddish-brown, of the same color as the 
tail-feathers ; the shafts are glossy-black ; under lining of wings 
clear cinnamon red ; under plumage light brownish ash, with the 
middle of the abdomen and the crissum white ; on the upper part of 
the breast a few feathers end with dark reddish-brown, forming an 
irregular narrow band ; the throat unfortunately is soiled with blood, 
but as well as I can judge, it has stripes colored like the breast, and the 
feathers edged with whitish ; the thighs are dull fulvous ; the bill is 



APPENDIX. 359 

large and strong, the upper mandible is black, the under also, but 
showing a brownish tinge ; tarsi and toes dark brown. 

Length (fresh), 9^ in. ; wing, 4^ ; tail, 3^ ; tarsus, 1^ ; bill from 
front, |. 

Type in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. There is but one specimen in the collection ; in the 
section {Planesticus) which this species comes under, the sexes do 
not differ. 

In the distribution of colors on the under plumage, it is much like 
T. albiventris, but the color of the breast and sides is darker, and 
the upper plumage is of a much deeper and richer brown. The 
strong black bill is a striking feature. 

Mr. Obersays: "Not abundant; obtained in Rutland Vale, Janu- 
ary 25, 1878.'' 

13. Myiadcstcs sibilans. w Soufriere Bird." 

The upper plumage is black ; the front, lores, and sides of the 
head for a short distance under the eye, are intense black ; the 
crown, occiput, hind neck and ear coverts are deep black ; the upper 
part of the back is not quite so deep in color, as it has a slight 
smoky tinge ; the lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-cov- 
erts have a wash of dull olivaceous, the latter terminate with black ; 
the ear-coverts have their shafts narrowly streaked with white, less 
striking than in M. genibarbis ; the lower eyelid is pure white ; the 
chin and the anterior part of the rictal stripe are white, the posterior 
part of the latter is cinnamon-red ; a very distinct black moustachial 
line starts from the under mandible, and joins the black of the side 
of the neck, separating the rictal stripe from the bright cinnamon- 
red color of the throat ; the breast and upper part of the abdomen 
are of a clear plumbeous gray ; the middle and lower part of the 
abdomen and the under tail-coverts are of a rather paler cinnamon- 
red than the throat ; the thighs are blackish plumbeous, some of the 
feathers ending with light-red ; the quills are black, the edge of the 
wing and bases of the quill-feathers are white ; the tail-feathers, 
except the outer two, are brownish slate-color, marked transversely 
with black bars, which are not very conspicuous ; the first lateral 
feather has the inner web grayish-white, with a blackish diagonal 
mark at the base, the outer web is black for one quarter of its length 
from the base, the remaining part of a dusky ash-color ; the second 
feather is blackish, except that it has for half its length, on the inner 
web, an elongated white mark along the shaft, widening out to the 



360 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

end ; the bill is black ; tarsi and toes very pale yellow, claws black ; 
"iris bright hazel." 

Length (fresh), -j\ in. ; wing, 3| ; tail, 3 ; tarsus, 1. 

The sexes do not differ in plumage. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This differs from all the West India species in its 
black upper plumage. The color of the throat is much lighter than 
in M. genibarbis and solitaries ; in both of these the color is of a 
deep chestnut red ; it has the black moustachial line as in M. geni- 
barbis, but it is more defined. 

M. armillatus (according to the description and plate) differs in 
being of a lighter color above, slate-gray (gris ardoise) ; in having 
the red of the under plumage darker, brownish-red (bmn roux) ; it 
has no moustachial line, and the eye is encircled with white ; but it 
varies especially in having the feathers of the thigh terminating in 
bright yellow. 

Mr. Ober writes : "This bird has been an object of search for fifty 
years, and has so long eluded the vigilance of naturalists and visitors 
to the mountains, that it is called the ' invisible bird.' From being 
seen only on the Soufriere Mountain, it has acquired the name of 
* Soufriere-bird.' " 

Mr. Ober is entitled to great credit for unraveling the mystery 
connected with this bird. By his indomitable perseverance, and 
camping out on the top of the mountain for several days, he secured 
seven specimens. 

14. Thryothorus musicus. "Wall-Bird." 

Male. Above of a dark ferruginous, somewhat darker on the 
crown and brighter on the rump ; lores, and a line running back from 
the eye, white tinged with rufous ; the exposed portions of the wings 
are dark rufous, conspicuously barred with black ; the inner webs 
of the primaries are blackish-brown ; under wing-coverts white ; the 
tail-feathers are dark-rufous, barred with black ; the entire back and 
upper tail-coverts are marked inconspicuously with narrow trans- 
verse dusky lines ; the feathers of the rump have concealed white 
shaft-stripes, which become wider toward the ends of the feathers ; 
the feathers of the back, also, have the basal portion of their shafts 
marked with white ; the throat, breast, and middle of the abdomen 
are white, the latter tinged with rufous ; the sides are light ferrugi- 
nous ; the under tail-coverts are rufous, each feather marked with 
a subterminal round black spot ; upper mandible black ; the under 
whitish, with the end dusky ; tarsi and toes light brownish flesh-color. 



APPENDIX. 361 

Length (fresh), 5^ in. ; wing, z\ ; tail, \\\ ; tarsus, f. 

There are three male specimens in the collection, but no female; 
one example is evidently not mature ; in this, the white dorsal and 
rump spots are wanting, and the crissum is immaculate ; the sides 
are dull rufous, the under plumage is tinged with rufous, and marked 
with faint narrow, dusky bars. This specimen was killed February, 
1878. 

Types in National Museum, WffSH£ng"r»$^ :i 

REMARKS. In its white under plumag^^this species somewhat 
resembles T. mesoieucus, Scl., from St. Luci a j bu t it is bright rufous 
above, instead of earthy-brown, and the flanks are light ferruginous 
instead of fulvous : it is also of larger dimensions. The transverse 
markings on the back, and the round black spots on the crissum, are 
strong characteristics. 

Air. Ober states that it is common, and is known as the " House 
wren " and " Wall bird," breeding in holes in houses and trees. He 
says : "The sweet warble of this lively little bird may be heard 
morning, noon, and night, about the houses and sugar mills, as well 
as far up the mountain-sides and valleys." 

15. Ccrthiola atrata. 

Male. The entire plumage is black ; on the head and throat it 
is of a deeper color ; the breast, upper part of abdomen, and rump, 
on a side view, show a just perceptible tinge of greenish olive ; bill 
and feet black. 

Length (fresh), 4| in. ; wing, 2f ; tail, if; tarsus, -f. 

The female differs only in being smaller. 

Length (fresh), 4 in. ; wing, z\ ; tail, i| ; tarsus, |. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This is certainly a remarkable departure from the reg- 
ular pattern of coloration, which prevails so uniformly in this genus. 
Had there been only a single example, I should have considered it 
as probably a case of abnormal coloring ; but it seems to be the 
representative form of the genus in this island. Mr. Ober says it is 
very abundant, and "seems to have almost entirely replaced the 
black and yellow one of Dominica," &c. He has sent four speci- 
mens, two of each sex. But what is surprising is, that there is like- 
wise found in St. Vincent a species of the usual style of coloration, 
of which he sends but two specimens, stating that it is not abun- 
dant. This I have described as a new species also. 



362 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

16. Certhiola saccharina. "Molasses Bird." 

Female. Crown, occiput, lores, and sides of the head glossy 
black ; back of a dull grayish or smoky black ; rump dull greenish- 
yellow ; a very conspicuous white superciliary stripe runs from the 
bill to the hind neck; tail black, the first two lateral feathers have a 
small patch of dull white on their inner webs at the end, the third 
feather has the end narrowly white ; wings black, with a white patch 
at the base of the primaries ; these have their outer webs narrowly 
margined with white ; edge of wing light yellow ; under wing-coverts 
white ; throat dark plumbeous, breast and upper part of abdomen, 
clear light yellow, the sides and lower part of the abdomen are light 
ashy-olive, under tail-coverts yellowish-white ; bill and feet black. 

Length (fresh), 4^ in. ;. wings, 2^ ; tail, i- L 9 g ; tarsus, f. Two speci- 
mens are in the collection ; one, marked g, has the plumage greatly 
soiled ; the other is marked as a 9 with a ? ; this I have taken for 
the tvpe, the plumage being in a much better condition. 

The male measures, length, 4| in. ; wing, 'i\ ; tail, If ; tarsus, f . 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This, in appearance, comes nearest to C. Portoricen- 
sz's, but differs in the superciliary stripe being wider and extending 
farther back, in the throat being many shades darker in color, in 
having the flanks of a darker olive, and the yellow on the rump 
darker and duller. The color of the breast and rump in C. Portori- 
censis is of a deeper yellow. 

17. Lenco-peza Bishofi. 

Male. The general plumage is smoky-black, rather darker on the 
head ; the sides are blackish cinereous ; a circle of pure white sur- 
rounds the eye ; a large roundish spot on the middle of the throat, 
the upper part of the breast, and the middle of the abdomen, are 
dull white, somewhat mixed with blackish on the throat and with 
cinereous on the abdomen ; a very small spot on the chin, and the 
tips of the feathers on the upper part of the throat, are dull white ; 
the black on the upper part of the breast has the appearance of a 
broad band, separating the white of the throat from that of the lower 
part of the breast ; the under tail-coverts are cinereous-black at base, 
ending largely with dull white ; wings and tail black, the outer two 
tail-feathers have a small white spot, triangular in shape, on their 
inner webs at the end ; bill black ; tarsi and toes very pale yel- 
lowish-brown, perhaps much lighter colored in the living bird, nails 
also pale. 



APPENDIX. 363 

Length (fresh), 5* in. ; wing, 2$ ; tail, 2\ ; tarsus, -|. 

Two specimens marked as females do not differ in plumage from 
the males. 

Length (fresh), 5-| in. ; wing, 2J ; tail, 2| ; tarsus, \. 

Another specimen, marked male, and of quite different colors, I 
have no doubt is the young of this species ; though Mr. Ober, in his 
notes, says of it (No. 428) : " The quickest to respond to my call on 
the Soufriere, was this little bird. It seems an associate of the pre- 
ceding species (L. BisJiopi), though I never saw them closely togeth- 
er ; yet in general shape and habits, especially in search for insects, 
they resembled one another. As I have got both male and female 
of the other, it precludes the possibility of its being the adult of the 
former. That there may be no doubt, I have preserved one in rum." 

The color of this specimen (No. 428) is of a dark olive-brown 
above, lighter below, and where the white markings are in the adult, 
it is of a pale dull rufous ; on the throat showing some white, and 
around the eye partially white; the marks on the ends of the tail- 
feathers are precisely as in the black specimens ; the quills are dark 
brown ; the tail-feathers are black. But what I consider conclusive 
evidence of its being the young of L. BisJiopi is, that on the crown 
the black feathers are beginning to appear. Had it not been marked 
as a male, I should have taken it for the female of this species. But 
according to Mr. Ober, the sexes are alike. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This is a remarkable species, and at first I was at 
a loss where to place it properly ; I determined it to be a Sylvico- 
line form, yet unlike any of that family in coloration. On comparing 
it with the description and plate of Leucopesa Sempcri, Mr. Scla- 
ter's new form from St. Lucia (P. Z. S., 1876, p. 14), I determined it 
to be a second species of that peculiar genus, and, like that species, 
having long and light-colored tarsi. 

Mr. Ober requested that I would bestow the name of our friend 
Mr. Nathaniel H. Bishop on some West India bird of his procuring, 
if the opportunity offered ; and it gives me much pleasure to connect 
his name with so remarkable a species. 

The habits of this bird would seem to be like those of the wren, 
as Mr. Ober has on the labels, "Wren? " He states that they are 
" very rare and very shy, and found in the crater and dark gorges of 
the Soufriere." 

Three specimens were obtained in November, 1877, and one in 
February, 1878. 



{64 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



18. Calliste versicolor. r ' Sour-sop Bird." 

Male. Front, crown, and occiput of a bright deep chestnut-red ; 
upper plumage golden fawn-color, clearest on the sides of the neck 
and on the rump, in some positions showing a pale greenish-silvery 
gloss ; upper tail-coverts bluish-green ; lores and partly under the 
eye black ; sides of the head and ear-coverts dull dark-green ; tail- 
feathers black, except the two middle ones, which, with the outer 
margins of the others, are bluish-green ; quills black, conspicuously 
edged with bluish-green ; wing-coverts black, with their exposed 
portions bluish-green ; under wing-coverts of a light salmon color ; 
the under plumage is changeable according to position ; viewed from 
the bill downward it is of a light bluish-lilac, the blue color deepest 
on the lower part of the throat and the upper part of the breast ; on 
a side view the abdomen is of a purplish-red; the feathers of the 
upper part of the throat are tipped with gray ; the under tail-coverts 
are bright cinnamon color ; upper mandible black ; the under, light 
brownish horn color ; tarsi and toes black. 

Length, 6\ in. ; wing, 3| ; tail, 2* ; tarsus, If. 

The female differs in having the top of the head of a lighter chest- 
nut color, and the upper plumage of a pale green ; the under plu- 
mage has the same colors as the male, but much subdued ; the abdo- 
men, sides, and under tail-coverts are of a light cinnamon color ; the 
wings and tail are black, but margined with a paler bluish-green ; 
the markings about the head and on the throat are similar io those 
of the male, " iris hazel." 

Length, 6 in. ; wing, 3I ; tail, i\ ; tarsus, If. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This fine new species belongs to the group which 
contains C. vitriolina, cay ana, cyanolcema, and cucullataj it some- 
what resembles the latter, a species I have never seen, but accord- 
ing to the plate (Mon. of Calliste, Scl.), the colors of the present 
bird are generally darker, with no tendency to ochreous-yellow 
above, as in C. cucullata, and the abdomen is purple instead of red- 
dish ochreous ; the crown is of a clearer and brighter chestnut-red. 
It is larger than any of its allies ; and a strikingly different character 
is its very large and stout bill, exceeding in size that of any of them I 
am acquainted with, being fully as large as the bill of Tanagra cana. 

No species of Calliste appears to be on record before from any of 
the West India islands proper. There are five specimens in the 
collection, three $ and two <?, procured in February, 1878. "Fre- 
quents the mountain ridges and valleys." 



appendix. 365 

Descriptions of Supposed New Species of Birds 
from the Island of Grenada, West Indies. 

19. Turdus CaribbcBus. 

Male. Upper plumage dark-olive, with the forehead dull reddish- 
brown ; tail dark brownish-olive ; quills dark-brown ; lower part of 
throat, upper part of breast and sides, clear ash ; lower part of 
breast, middle of abdomen, and under tail-coverts white ; upper part 
of throat white, with distinct narrow stripes of ashy-brown ; the 
under wing-coverts are pale cinnamon ; upper mandible blackish 
for two-thirds its length, the end yellow ; the under is yellow, 
with the base black; tarsi and toes brown; "iris red, naked skin 
around the eye orange." 

Length (fresh), 9I in. ; wing 5 ; tail, 4^ ; tarsus, 1^. 

There are two specimens in the collection, both males ; the length 
given of the other is 9^ inches ; the tarsi are blackish-brown. 

Habitat, Grenada. Mr. Ober says : " Rather numerous, but shy." 
Type in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This species has a naked space around the eye, sim- 
ilar to that of T. gymnopthalmus j but it is of larger dimensions 
and differently colored from that species. The upper plumage of the 
new bird is clear deep olive, not at all brownish as in the other ; the 
under plumage is of a lighter ash, and has a much greater extent of 
white ; the striations on the throat are darker and more clearly de- 
fined. 

20. Thryothorus Gi'cnadcnsis. " God Bird." 

Female. Upper plumage of a rather bright ferruginous, a little 
inclining to brownish on the head and hind neck, and brighter on 
the rump ; lores whitish tinged with rufous ; a light rufous stripe 
extends over the eye to the hind neck ; tail dull rufous, barred with 
black ; the primary quills have their outer webs of a dull light rufous, 
with broad black bars ; the inner webs are brownish-black ; the 
wing-coverts and tertials are rufous with narrower black bars ; under 
wing-coverts pale rufous ; the throat is very pale rufous, inclining to 
whitish ; the breast light rufous ; the middle of the abdomen is of 
a rather paler shade ; the sides and under tail-coverts are of a bright 
darker ferruginous ; the upper mandible brownish-black ; the under 
pale yellow, dusky at the tip ; tarsi and toes hazel-brown. 

Length (fresh), 4§ in. ; wing, 2| ; tail, \\ ; tarsus, f ; bill from 
front, \\. 



366 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

There is also a specimen of the male, but as it was in poor condi- 
tion, I chose the female as the type, from which it does not differ in 
plumage ; its measure is given ; length, 5 in. ; wing, i\ ; tail, i-|. 

Habitat, Grenada, " Abundant." 
Type in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. This species differ from T. rufescens, from Dominica, 
in having the coloring lighter throughout, especially below, the entire 
under plumage of T. rufescens being of a dark rufous ; there are 
subterminal black markings on the under tail-coverts of T. rufescens, 
whereas those of the new species are immaculate. 

T. musicus, from St. Vincent, is at once distinguished by its white 
under plumage. 

21. £>iiiscaliis iuminosus. " Bequia-Sweet." 

Male. The general plumage is of a lustrous dark bluish-violet ; 
the upper and under tail-coverts are dull dark green ; tail dark glossy 
green ; tertials, outer webs of larger quills, and the middle and larger 
wing coverts, glossy-green like the tail ; the inner webs of the larger 
quills are black ; smaller wing-coverts the color of the back ; under 
wing-coverts black ; the bill and feet are black ; " iris yellow." 

Length (fresh), 10^ in. ; wing, 5 ; tail, \\ ; tarsus, 1^ ; bill, 1^. 

Female. Upper plumage of a fine dark brown, light on the 
crown, the feathers of which are margined with dull pale rust-color ; 
the tail is blackish-brown, with a wash of greenish, quills dark- 
brown ; the under plumage is dark brownish-ash, lighter on the 
throat and breast, and fuliginous on the flanks, lower part of abdo- 
men, and under tail-coverts ; on the lower part of the neck is a wash 
of dull rust-color ; bill and feet black ; " iris yellow." 

Length (fresh), 9| in. ; wing, \\ ; tail, 4; tarsus, T 3 g ; bill, if. 

Habitat, Grenada. 

Types in National Museum, Washington. 

Remarks. The male of this species, in dimensions and general 
appearance, somewhat resembles Q. brachypterus from Porto Rico, 
but is of a brighter and more uniform violet ; it may be at once 
known by its upper and under tail-coverts being green, the other 
having the upper coverts colored like the back, and the under ones 
black. The females are totally unlike, — that sex in Q. brachypte- 
rus being black like the male, only duller. 



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